The Different Faces of Su Li
by romantiscue
Summary: A crossdressing Su Li flees to La Push after the war to escape her father. Perfectly straight Embry Call never expected to imprint on another guy. Pseudo-slash. Sexuality confusion.
1. Prologue

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Prologue_

* * *

The house was small but well maintained and Su couldn't help but feel that she'd struck a bargain, moving here on such short notice and all. She hadn't really expected the place to be as clean as it was, considering that her grandmother had moved out almost a decade ago.

She wasn't sure, but suspected it was the other Elders of the tribe who had kept the house in its pristine condition. Her grandmother had been a very well-respected Elder on the Reservation before the war had her leaving for England, where Su's mother had been fighting as an auror in the first wizarding war.

She'd been so happy when Potter had ended their war, killing Voldemort and freeing them from his slowly enveloping reign, and after the Battle of Hogwarts it'd felt like the world had opened up once more, the way she'd felt the first time she'd left for the wizarding school. Even more so after the horrible year the Carrows had taken over as leaders of the school, spewing their nonsense in class and defiling the place she'd come to love.

Being a half-blood, she'd taken her fair share of their punishments, but looking back, she knew it'd made her stronger. _What doesn't kill you makes you stronger_, was a phrase she'd heard often coming from her father, and it was something she'd clung to in those awful dungeons when the future seemed much too Dark to bear.

She supposed she should have expected it when her father declared that she was to withdraw from the wizarding world after the war's end. Her mother had been killed in a raid a few months prior, and after the Battle of Hogwarts her father had feared that Su was gone too.

He never did understand why she had stepped up to fight that night; he'd never understood why any school children would fight a war he thought wasn't theirs to die in. She didn't fault him for it, but when she'd refused his order to drop out of the magical world when she'd returned home – toting a scarred owl and a lot of half-healed wounds – he'd gone ballistic.

She had never seen him so angry. He'd been irrational, terrifying, _unsafe_ – and when he finally backhanded her when she'd refused to back down, Su knew she had to get out. Her father had always had a temper, but never before one that had caused her or her mother any harm. She'd tried telling herself that it was only borne of fear, and would subside - but that would require her living her life in the muggle world her father's entire life.

And that wasn't something she could agree to. She'd fought hard; blood, sweat and tears, to defend the school and the children in the younger years. She hadn't been the best or most experienced student fighter – nobody was better than the "Golden Trio" – but she'd still managed to make a difference. Her obsessive love of learning and practicing new spells had finally paid off for real. Leaving the place she'd almost died to protect wasn't something she was willing to do.

But her dad had still been her guardian, and he'd filed for her withdrawal the very next day. Learning that he'd made that decision for her without discussing it with her first had felt like a blow more physical than the backhand. Because her only living parent was a muggle, her official legal age was raised to 18 at his request; something that was apparently a precaution put in place several decades ago. She wasn't sure what kind of protection that was supposed to bring anyone, but then, she was rather sure the law wasn't actually utilized very often.

She could imagine it was there to reassure the muggle parents that they still did have some measure of control of the children, and Su didn't dispute the law as such. Having your children disappear for nine months of the year was probably harsh enough, so being told that they had one year less with which to protect the children from the hardships of adulthood would probably feel like having the rug pulled from under your feet.

But that obviously didn't mean she approved the situation she'd been put in. Wizarding laws and the government in general had always seemed a lot less advanced than its muggle counterpart, and this incident just proved her prejudices correct. She wouldn't go so far as to call the governing body inept – compared to the one under Fudge, the difference was much too obvious – but it was still as traditional as it had always been. It was hard to switch gears after so many centuries, Su suspected, but that didn't mean she would condone the way they'd overlooked her needs in favor for stamping approval on her father's requests.

They should at least have conducted an interview, even if she had been sixteen at the time and a minor in both worlds.

If she was lucky though, the fact that people like Hermione Granger – who'd reached the pinnacle of fame after the Battle together with Ron Weasley, as the Chosen One's _Lieutenants_ – had taken official seats in the governing council - bringing with her new ideas and a spine of steel, if what Su had heard was to be believed – might force some much needed changes in the way the government was run. She wouldn't put it past the girl to try, anyway. And maybe the world would finally be ready to listen.

Either way, she had one year left in hiding before she would even attempt to approach England again. Until then, she was staying in Forks.

It hadn't been much of a decision, really; that her grandmother Nenya was of a Native American tribe was known to her father, but the fact that she owned a cottage in a reservation was something only Su and her mother had been aware of. Her father and her grandmother hadn't been on outright bad terms, but they'd never been close either, since her grandmother lived in America and her father couldn't floo-travel with them to see her.

Her grandmother had died several years back, from natural causes, so this was as safe as she was going to get. She did have all the papers she needed to claim the house, and had done so with less trouble than she expected (and with the help of a Confundus charm, once or twice).

Su hadn't felt secure enough with that, though. She'd live in the muggle world for quite some time, and though she'd left a note for her father to explain her absence, there was a rather strong possibility that he'd alert the police and she would end up wanted.

So she decided she needed to disguise herself. It had to be a disguise that wouldn't require too much maintenance to keep, since she'd have to live under it constantly until she turned eighteen, but it had to be elaborate enough so that she wouldn't be recognizable as Su Li if she ever came under scrutiny.

Finally she'd decided on something quite radical, and hopefully very unexpected: she'd disguise herself as a guy. It wasn't something anyone would expect of her, she was sure, because she'd never been much of a risk-taker or very rebellious. She was quiet and studious, with no flair for the dramatic, and the idea had seemed very strange even to herself.

What had inspired the idea was the simple fact that she'd never been the most feminine of girls - and even less so after the war. She hadn't been able to eat well since even before the war switched into high gear, and her sleep was often interrupted by nightmares. A testament to that was the dark circles under her eyes and the pale hue her usually tanned skin had taken on - and the stress the situation with her father added to her days didn't improve that.

Her breasts were small and clung to her ribcage like seashells. She wasn't very tall, but her body had a gangly quality to it that she thought she might be able to fit into a boy's walk if she practiced a little.

Cutting off her hair had been surprisingly painful; Su hadn't ever felt any emotional attachment to the long tresses, other than noting that it resembled her mother's a great deal, but she'd teared up a little when she waved her wand and watched the curls fall to the floor. That was probably the reason she hadn't been able to go through with the shorter buzz-cut she'd intended before she started. Instead she'd cut it in layers; longer at the nape and around her ears, with a fringe that fell over her eyebrows.

It had looked surprisingly good, and though she'd been dressed in a nightgown at the time, she still thought she could see androgyny shroud her face. She'd never had a haircut like this before, preferring to keep it in sensible braids to her mid-back, and couldn't help but be surprised at how it changed her features. She'd never considered having a make-over before, but she thought she could see why Gryffindor's Lavender kept changing styles if this was how much you could alter your appearance even with simple means.

She'd considered dyeing her hair another color, but if she were to live in La Push, a drastic change would just make her stand out, which was exactly what she was trying to avoid. Her hair was just a shade lighter than the typical Quileute hair color she'd seen in photos, so her natural color would have to do.

Before she left, she'd taken some of her late muggle uncle's old clothes that had been stored in the attic; several pairs of denim jeans and shirts, as well as two sweaters. Everything was a bit too large and worn, but whole and otherwise without fault, so she'd make do. She'd been wearing robes almost constantly since she turned eleven, so it was a bit too late to start caring about fashion now.

She knew she'd come across as more of a bookworm in clothes like these, and anything that would help her be overlooked was a definite plus, even if she looked like she'd raided a second hand store. There wasn't much money for her to buy new clothes with, anyway. She'd emptied her bank account, withdrawing all her college money – which had ended up being a sum larger than she'd hoped for – and though she wasn't anywhere near rich, it should be enough to live on for a year if she was careful with how she spent it.

Su hadn't been sure how much more she would need to disguise, but when she'd realized how easily losing a binding over her admittedly very small breasts could reveal her, she'd decided to take drastic measures. The apothecary in Diagon Alley carried several potions that could be used for different disguises, and she'd bought both a long-term breast reducer and a voice modifier.

The potion to modify her voice was a risky one to take; if she took too much, the extended use of her altered voice could cause damage to her vocal cords and larynx. She hadn't dared taking more than the amount that would lower her voice from her natural alto to a high tenor, but considering her slight build, anything much lower than that would probably sound unnatural coming from her.

Her still rather high vocal range did cause some problems, however. There was no way she'd be able to pass as a seventeen year old _guy_ with a voice this light. Especially since she hadn't had the presence of mind to buy a potion for facial hair growth. Well, she couldn't fault herself too much for that, since she'd been in a rush to get out of England and so nervous she was all but shaking with it.

The last thing she'd bought had been another reason for her nervousness. She'd debated long and hard whether she actually needed something to disguise her lower half, despite the fact that nobody would be seeing her undressed – but considering that she wasn't sure if the reservation school had mandatory swimming lessons, and the fact that La Push was built along a shore, the risk felt much too great. What if someone were to discover her gender because she'd waved off her worries? That would make her whole scheme fall apart.

Su hadn't even known that there were wizarding sex shops until then, though it honestly shouldn't have surprised her. Sex had been popular through all time, and even if the magical world was stuck about two centuries after the muggle one, sex was still enjoyed, if perhaps a tad more discreet than in the muggle world.

She'd ended up buying a magical strap-on.

Su usually wasn't much of a blusher, but the way the cashier had stared at her knowingly had turned her red to the roots of her hair. She'd never been prudish about sex, despite her virgin status, but she'd never been very inclined to speak about such issues either and she'd hurried out the store before the woman could make any comments on her purchase.

Either way, she'd gotten the strap-on - which looked more like a prosthetic penis and balls - that had all the sexual functions of an authentic organ, and was stuck to her lower body with magic. It was a strange feeling, having something that most definitely didn't belong on her body glued to her in this manner. It wasn't precisely uncomfortable; she just wasn't used to the extra weight.

Perhaps she should have bought a smaller size; she had – perhaps foolishly – assumed that 'medium' would be the median size for real men.

Not that there was much point in harboring regrets after her arrival in America. Instead she'd focused on learning to walk in manner that didn't scream 'I have something in my pants that does not belong!' while trying to find her way to Forks. It was such a small town that it didn't even have an airport, and after landing in Seattle she'd realized that she didn't have a way to actually get to the town iself. She'd finally hailed a cab, despite knowing that it'd be expensive, not seeing any other way to go about it.

Forks would be a rainy place to live, but the forests surrounding it was the most gorgeous natural habitat she'd ever seen. The green was luscious and the trees so large they completely obscured her view of the sky in some places. There were worse places she could have been forced to escape to, Su admitted.

She enrolled herself in the ninth grade, as a fourteen soon-to-be fifteen year old under the name Sully Lin, figuring that ninth grade would be appropriate both because of her appearance and her muggle education. Her father had insisted that she study the subjects taught in muggle school during the summers, but it had been impossible to keep up with the grade material she would have studied had she been attending a muggle school through the whole year.

There had been a few hitches concerning her age, but explaining that her grandmother had wanted her here for the duration of the school year had apparently been all it took to convince them. Never had her grandmother's status as an Elder of a tribe been so useful, even if Su did feel guilty about forging her handwriting in a letter explaining the situation.

She hoped the old woman would forgive her, but honestly wouldn't have been surprised to find that her grandmother had found her adventure a fascinating ride to follow from the afterlife.

Su smiled a little at Sully's reflection in the hallway mirror, worrying the too-long ends of her sleeves with her fingertips. This was as good as it was going to get, and her first muggle school day since she turned eleven began in half an hour.

Stepping into her unisex sneakers, Su braved the rain with a large black umbrella in hand.

* * *

**A/N:** I've always wanted to write a story like this, and I figured I should try posting it to see if the set-up intrigues anyone else. I got the inspiration from Blade Redwind's _The Bet_, several Mulan one-shots by different authors as well as a few books; Pamela Kaufman's _Shield of Three Lions_ somehow ended up giving me the courage to post the prologue.

As for why I chose a Twilight/Harry Potter crossover... well, let's be honest; of all fanfiction on FFnet, these two fandoms' have the most junk in them. If I screw this up somehow, I won't be setting the bar for these fandoms' fiction.

I suppose I should also point out that I don't really care too much about the Twilight timeline, since this is an imprint story and won't deal with Bella very much. I can tell you that it takes place during Eclipse, though. That said, this story will not be about two people with everyone else just floating around in the background, and Su will not meet with Embry the very first day.

Reviews are motivation to write more :)


	2. Settling In

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 2: Settling in_

* * *

The classrooms were surprisingly large for a school with only around 300 students, and the first day had passed with surprising smoothness. There had been the obligatory thousand questions about her past, but she'd prepared a background story close enough to the truth for the other students to be satisfied.

She'd been on edge though, the whole day, wondering if anyone would remark on her appearance or stare at her with suspicion. She needn't have worried about that, apparently, since nobody had questioned her gender. She supposed it might have had to do with the others wanting to feel her out first, or because they were more concerned with the novelty of having a new classmate – something that obviously didn't happen too often, if the incessant staring and whispering was to be believed.

Su had done her best to listen in on all conversations that appeared to be pertaining to her, but after a few hours, she gave that up as a mission impossible. Everybody was talking about her, at least that's how it seemed, and their nattering only ended up causing her the mother of all headaches.

She did hear a few people comment on her outfit, but though it did embarrass that some were sneering at her frayed shirt and pants, it didn't concern her overly much. She was only here temporarily anyway, and as long as they kept their negativity verbal, she could ignore them.

It wasn't until almost at the end of the school day that someone commented on her body with regards to her movements. She heard the word 'effeminate', and her heart leapt to her throat. She stilled, desperate to hear if this escapade had been for nothing before it had truly begun, but a second later she breathed out in a choked laugh.

Apparently, her gender wasn't as much in question as her _sexuality_. Well, it could have been a lot worse, and since she didn't have any intentions to date anyone while here, she couldn't say the way the group questioned her possible homosexuality among themselves bothered her.

It was mostly kind of hilarious, honestly. _If only they knew._

Su wasn't sure of the general opinion about differing sexual orientations in this town, though. She'd heard that smaller muggle towns tended to look down on it, but since she couldn't even remember from where those words heralded, there was no point bearing prejudices before she'd acquired proof.

The people who had been discussing her sexuality had struck her as a group of curious gossip-mongers, but she hadn't felt any overt hostility in their words. Perhaps they just found the possibility fascinating?

Other than that there was no drama, and Su breathed a sigh of relief when she got home. She hadn't known how stressful this would be when she began, and a nagging voice in the back of her head wondered if she hadn't taken on more than she could handle.

Su resolutely blocked the voice out with the help of Occlumency exercises she'd began learning when the Carrows took over Hogwarts. She wasn't an expert, but she knew enough to slide thoughts over each other and muddle them. It worked wonderfully as a calming agent on frayed nerves.

Smiling as her body relaxed, Su allowed herself to sink down into the living room couch. Day one of her year as Sully, completed.

The adrenaline that had kept her on her toes all day faded, and Su decided to go to bed early. She wasn't hungry anyway, and exhaustion was starting to cloud her mind.

Three times she woke; the first two because of nightmares, and the last because of what sounded like a wolf howling. It should have alarmed her, but somehow it instead came across as surprisingly comforting, and after that she had a better night's sleep than she'd had in almost two years.

The next morning dawned bright and much too early. Su woke with a large yawn, arching her back from the mattress before easing back down. It had been a long time since she'd woken up feeling anywhere near rested and she celebrated it by frying an egg. She didn't manage to eat it all in one go, but it was an improvement nevertheless.

The skies were cloudy when she stepped out the door, but thankfully it wasn't raining. She wasn't in the mood for rain today.

When she arrived at the school's parking lot, Su saw the girl she'd been placed next to in class. She nodded in greeting and got a wave in return. It was almost unreal, how different the atmosphere was here. Everyone was carefree and nobody bore signs of war or rough times. It was as if even the air was lighter here than it had been in England, despite the ever-present clouds.

Su breathed in deeply, tasting the cold breeze and enjoying the feel of it caressing her face.

"Yo, Lin!"

Su turned around, having only just stepped over the threshold into the school's hall. She recognized three boys from the class she'd been introduced to yesterday, but she couldn't quite remember their names.

"Yes?" she answered carefully, assessing their stances and trying to figure out their intentions as they approached her. It was a habit she'd picked up in her last year of schooling, borne from paranoia and experience.

Their expressions were friendly, and with their ambling walk, they didn't look very threatening. There was no way they'd be able to outrun her in pants that hung so low on their hips, anyway, so Su felt safe in relaxing her shoulders from their tense position.

"This is Leo Grave, Umio Lund and I'm Oliver Neulu."

He nodded to his friends as he introduced them and then stuck out a hand towards Su. Su blinked, grasped the offered hand and smiled a little.

"Sully Lin. Nice to meet you."

She was easily drawn into conversation, and wondered at how smoothly things were going. She hadn't really planned on making any friends, figuring that if she didn't step up and introduced herself to others, she'd be left alone. Apparently that wasn't the case here, and she wondered if this was the difference between a large and a small city, or the difference between the muggle and the magical community.

She supposed it couldn't hurt to have some friends, as long as she still kept a low profile. It was clear the trio she'd run into wasn't a part of this school's popular crowd, so hopefully she'd still remain largely unnoticed as soon as the novelty of a new student wore off.

During the lunch hour, seated in the noisy cafeteria, Su was pleasantly surprised to find that Oliver - who was otherwise somewhat brash and rather loud, in the way most teenaged boys seemed to be - shared her passion for old movies and was further surprised when the other two admitted to 'not _totally_ hating them'. It wasn't an interest she had expected of boys in their younger teens, and they spoke for almost half an hour about the classics.

"So, Sully, what do you think of the school?" Umio asked during a lull in the conversation. He was the most quiet of the three, and appeared to her as more of a spectator than a participant. He did insert the occasional comment, but Leo and Oliver were the ones to keep the conversation flowing.

He reminded her a little of himself, and when she observed him she could kind of see why Oliver had extended his hand in friendship to her. He must have noticed the likeness too, probably subconsciously.

"It's nice. A lot smaller than what I'm used to. And quieter."

Very true. Hogwarts had almost a thousand students, and with all the ongoing drama between the houses and whatnot, the school had always been in a state of cacophony. She wasn't surprised to feel a twinge of homesickness at that thought; she'd spent more time at Hogwarts than she'd done at home, and she had so many memories...

Leo whistled teasingly, "Don't get all grumpy on us, Sul." The nickname startled her back to awareness and she snorted at his words.

The difference in their ages became rather obvious at times like these, at least to her. They were very uncomfortable with all emotional subjects, and deflected them with teasing comments. If they weren't generally so well-meaning, she'd probably have grown frustrated after a while, but instead she just changed the subject.

She found the way Leo's and Oliver's faces slackened with relief rather humorous, though it didn't escape her notice that Umio's eyes slid across the planes of her face with concern. If the boy had been older, Su would have been worried at how carefully he watched her, but as it was, she just shot him a tiny grateful smile. She doubted the former two even noticed.

The girl whose seat she'd been placed next to introduced herself during history, after the lunch hour. Her name was Eliza Bell, and she offered to show her around Forks after school. Su had had to decline, since she'd been roped into coming with the trio to Oliver's house after school to watch some action movie that she didn't really want to see.

It would have been too rude to snub them though, after the way they'd adopted her into their fold so easily. She wasn't entirely sure when she'd agreed to come with, because just going to school and worrying about her disguise was stressful enough... now she'd have to stand up to three teenaged boys after-school scrutiny and make sure she didn't give them any reasons to be suspicious of her.

"Would it be alright to reschedule until tomorrow? I have a prior engagement to participate in today," she wasn't sure why she was suddenly so formal, but it felt right considering the timid way Eliza had offered to show her around. The girl obviously wasn't a social butterfly and Su wouldn't feel right just snubbing her either.

Ah, the curse of politeness.

Eliza nodded, blushing red, and waved goodbye as she ran to the next class. Su looked after her with some confusion, hoping that she hadn't made the girl uncomfortable.

"Wooo!" Sue turned around at the whooping noise and came face-to-face with the trio. Oliver was grinning knowingly, with Leo standing just behind him, smirking. Umio was wearing an exasperated expression and looked like he was only just managing to keep his eyes from rolling heavenward.

Su cocked her head to the side, hefting her books up against her side and asked, "What was that for?"

Oliver stepped forward and threw an arm around her shoulder, "We _saw_ that, Sully." The grin was audible in his voice as was the obvious pleasure at the teasing words. Su glanced at him from the corner of her eye and found him looking at her eagerly.

"Way to go, man. Now tell us all about it. When did'ya meet her?"

It took Su a second to connect the dots, and she frowned in dismay. Trust a trio of hormonal teenage boys to draw that conclusion from a simple friendly exchange.

"It's not like that. She's just going to show me around Forks tomorrow," Su commented softly and resisted groaning when even Umio looked skeptical.

"Mmm-hm," Oliver nodded sagely and let go of her shoulders just enough to turn her around.

"That 's what you think." He made a tsking sound that was so out of character that Su forwent a reply in favor of staring at him. He was wearing a slightly condescending expression and looked to be drawing himself up to impart words of wisdom.

"When girls do things like that, it means they want to be _more _than friends," he continued and Su let her stare sour into a glare. She resisted huffing in annoyance when he simply snorted at her and patted her shoulder, the gesture brimming with a _You'll get it when you're older_ type of feeling that made her want to smack him over the head.

Before she had a chance to do anything, Oliver spun on his heel to trot of with a swagger in his step. Umio shot her a half-amused, half-apologetic expression before beckoning her to follow, and feeling her lips draw up in irritated amusement despite herself, Su caught up to them.

Somehow it was very hard to stay angry at the boy, despite his ridiculous over-confidence, and Su was strangely starting to look forward to their movie night.

* * *

In bed that night, Su smiled to herself. It had been a long time since she'd been able to let go even a little bit, but listening to Oliver and Leo's chatter - and trading amused glances with Umio whenever either of the other two said something particularly entertaining - while half-watching the movie had been unexpectedly nice.

She hadn't needed to worry about being discovered, because the boys just weren't very focused on her in that manner. Hell, even if they had been, she doubted there would have been much for them to discover. Her disguise really was very realistic, and she'd made sure to dress in the larger sweater so as to completely – and unnecessarily – hide her body from view.

It had been comfortable, relaxing and non-threatening... just what she needed. The strange innocence inherent in the boys' smiles that felt like a balm on her bruised soul. She'd never be able to tell them what was really going on in her life, and they'd never be as close as they could have been if her situation had been a little less strange, but for now this was just enough. Just what she needed to get through this year without becoming completely isolated: uncomplicated friendships.

She'd whipped up a dinner consisting of a chicken salad. It wasn't much, but more than she'd usually even attempt to make for herself. Though she would need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. Hopefully Eliza would be alright with showing her to the closest convenience store at the end of their tour tomorrow.

Su was almost asleep when she heard the same howling sounds that had woken her up the previous night. She hadn't known there would be wolves here, and wasn't sure if that meant she'd be unable to hike in the woods surrounding the rez. It was a disappointing thought, though she supposed she could keep to the edges and be careful.

Maybe she should continue her attempts to become an animagus, since that was an escape she'd be able to attempt without alerting anyone to the magic use. An animagus transformation didn't expel any magic, as the transformation was focused inwards, and it would be a very useful technique to know.

But it was also a very advanced one. Su had always been good with Transfiguration - it was one of the three subjects she had O's in – which was why she'd begun practicing the animagus transformation in the first place. But she hadn't made much progress and had grown increasingly frustrated, until she finally stopped trying completely when she'd heard that the Carrows were monitoring the rooms in Hogwarts. She hadn't been able to risk them finding out, should she succeed.

But that risk was no longer a valid concern, and Su supposed she didn't really have any reasons not to resume the practice again. At least it would give her something to focus on when she felt inclined to fall back into past nightmarish memories.

She curled into the fetal position, good mood and sleepiness suddenly gone. The thought of everything she'd lost wasn't something she wanted to dwell on, but constantly pushing the nagging thoughts to the back of her mind was tiring. She was keeping her Occlumency shields up constantly during the day, but at night they always started to falter before she'd truly fallen asleep.

She'd heard that expert Occlumence could keep shields up even while asleep and spared an envious thought to the lucky bastards. She hoped they valued that ability; Su would have done anything to be that good at keeping unwanted memories away from her sleep.

Sighing into the pillow, Su tried to smooth out the oncoming headache before it'd make her unable to sleep at all.

She sighed slowly, keeping her breathing as even as she could and trying to clear her mind. Though she didn't feel it, it must have been working, because before she knew it she'd ended up in the claws of fitful sleep.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad you were intrigued by the premise and that you liked my characterization of Su ;)

OC's_ won't_ be invading the story, but I didn't have any canon characters to work with in Su's year :/

SanToro: Both of your questions will pop back up to haunt Su later.


	3. It's a new day, it's a new life

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 3: It's a new day, it's a new life_

_

* * *

_

Another day of school passed, with Su sticking to the boyish trio and ignoring the whispers about her that still permeated the air whenever she walked by. She'd waved to Eliza, confirming that the girl was still up for the tour after school – ignoring the whistles she heard Oliver make – and frowning when Eliza all but ran out the door.

When she rounded on Oliver with a glare, he held up her hands innocently. The groan he let out when Umio elbowed him in the stomach was unexpectedly satisfying and she couldn't help but smirk a little at the betrayed look Oliver shot his friends. Leo just cackled at the situation as a whole and then waggled his eyebrows at her, probably thinking of all sorts of lewd things to say. The boy had an unexpectedly foul mouth on him, she'd discovered.

"So your date is still on?" he asked, leering a little at her. Su frowned at the expression – it looked completely out of place on Leo's round face – and shook her head.

"It's _not_ a date, Leo," she sighed for nth time.

"Keep telling yourself that, dude."

He grinned when she grimaced at him. It was a rather childish thing to do, but the boys were rather childish, so it'd fit right in.

"I need to go by groceries," she muttered, plucking the list she'd made from her trouser-pocket and pursing her lips.

Oliver stared at her and then rolled his eyes. "You're so – _frumpy_, man. What the hell kinda teenage guy worries about _groceries_?" Leo nodded in agreement, looking a little pitying.

Su looked up from her list and commented softly, "The kind that doesn't have any parents."

She felt a little bad about how quickly that ruined the mood, but she was also rather grateful for the apologetic look Oliver shot her. For all that he avoided emotional conversations, he wasn't completely senseless.

"Sorry, man," he muttered finally and Su looked up with a small smile. It erased the tense lines that furrowed his forehead and he clapped her on the shoulder heavily. She chalked the sudden tears in her eyes up to PMS mood swings.

It was funny how they didn't ask her anything else about her situation. She wasn't sure if it was because they though Oliver had overstepped the boundaries of a new friendship, if it was because they felt uncomfortable or if it was some guy thing she wasn't as of yet aware of.

"I wonder what happened to Seth," Leo suddenly commented out of the blue. Su looked up in confusion, not recognizing the name from any of their prior conversations. Umio, noticing her confusion, quickly took pity on her and explained,

"Seth is in the year above ours. He's always been a pretty cool guy, but a few weeks ago he up and disappeared."

He imparted the information in a whispery voice that made the hairs on the back of Su's neck rise. Disappearances was how the second war had begun – _which was now over; this had _nothing_ to do with that_ – and this new piece of information scared her.

Umio must have noticed her expression, or maybe her face paled, because he shook his head quickly and continued, "Not _disappeared_, disappeared – he just kind of, hasn't been to school lately."

Oliver crossed his arms over his chest in a position that could have looked intimidating, but mostly just seemed defensive. "Seth wasn't a friend or nothin', but he was still a good guy."

Su wanted to tell him that he didn't need to defend his worry, that concern wasn't a weakness of character, but instead she just nodded. Saying anything would probably just make him more uncomfortable.

"I heard he got involved with Samuel Uley," Leo muttered after a beat of silence. Su hadn't heard that name before either, but both Umio and Oliver frowned with the same seriousness, so she felt it necessary to ask them to elaborate.

"Sam Uley is this – guy, at the rez," Oliver began, but Leo snorted and interrupted;

"_Guy_? The man is a freaking _giant_."

Oliver shot him an irritated glance but didn't dispute the words. Umio nodded in clear agreement and Su wondered how large the guy must be for even Umio to agree so emphatically. There were several large students in the school and none of them had been commented on by the three.

"Anyway, he has this gang of people he hangs with -"

"- giants, all of them -" Leo interrupted again. Oliver nodded and grimaced, breaking his stance to sit down opposite Su, elbows on his knees.

"Yeah. Anyway, Uley is like – what, twenty? And all the guys he hangs with are younger than him. I mean, not a lot younger, but still teens – and they're up to no good, taking steroids or whatever," he finished lamely, sounding uncertain. It was like he was quoting something he'd heard many times before and wasn't quite sure of.

"Are you certain those rumors aren't just rumors?" Su asked carefully, not wanting to offend him, but not willing to believe his words without cause.

Oliver twitched his shoulders in an uneasy shrug, "Yeah. I mean nobody knows _for sure_, but there is still somethin' up with those people. I mean, all of them are huge as hell and they all look the same too -"

Leo nodded rapidly. "It's like they're in a cult or something, the way they act."

Su felt unease curl in her stomach, warning bells ringing in her head. It seemed like both Oliver and Leo had seen enough of these guys to put some consideration to the rumors. She wasn't sure what to think yet, but she wasn't willing to dismiss their words. She was new here, after all, and didn't know much about what was going on locally.

"How much younger are the guys this Uley person is with?" she finally asked, feeling like it was the most neutral-sounding question she could come up with.

"Dunno. They all look older than they are, so it's hard to tell -"

"- probably the drugs -"

Su cut into Leo's interruption before the glare Oliver shot him could become a full-blown argument, "And you think Seth has joined Sam Uley's gang?"

Two identical shrugs. She glanced at Umio, who was wearing an uncomfortable grimace, and nodded thoughtfully.

It wasn't like she was planning to have anything to do with those people anyway, and as long as she stayed away from any gigantic humans she saw, it should be alright. She hoped so, anyway.

When Oliver dropped the topic in favor for illustrating a the escapades of a movie he'd watched, Su pushed the worrying thoughts to the back of her mind. She'd ponder them later, when she was alone.

* * *

Eliza met her at the gate at the end of the school day, and Su pointedly ignored Oliver's parting grin and Leo's leer to wave goodbye to Umio. Umio nodded and pushed his friends away from where they'd been staring at Eliza, forcing them in another direction.

Su had a feeling the boy didn't quite believe her about this not being a date, either, but at least he wasn't being obnoxious about it.

"Hi," Su greeted the girl quietly. Eliza's hand jerked up in a half-wave and she pushed a lock of hair behind her ears, looking up through her lashes as her eyes darted from the boys retreating backs to Su.

Su wasn't sure if she was what made Eliza so nervous or if the girl was always this way. Perhaps she was just shy.

"Hello Sully," she greeted back softly and Su frowned internally at Eliza's smile. Why would a supposedly shy girl invite someone she barely knew to spend an afternoon with her? That didn't make any sense, but Su didn't feel like investigating the question further in the current situation, and shoved it back to where the darker thoughts concerning this Uley character lingered.

"What do you think about La Push?" Eliza asked as they made their way out of the reservation towards Forks. It was the first thing Eliza said since greeting her, and Su sighed quietly when the awkward silence disappeared. She was no good at making small talk, and even less so with fourteen year old muggle girls with whom she was bound to have even less in common than she did with the trio back in rez school.

"It's a lot smaller than what I'm used to," Su commented carefully. This line of questioning could trip her up if she wasn't careful and she felt her back muscles tense and her gait stiffen in preparation for a possible verbal game of cloak-and-dagger.

Eliza nodded thoughtfully, "You're from England?" It was more of a question than a statement, and Su nodded superfluously. The whole school knew she was from London and she hadn't made any attempts at disguising her accent, so no trip-wires there.

"What's it like over there?"

It was an innocuous query, but a very difficult one to answer honestly. The war had torn her part of England to bits, and her life along with it, but that wasn't a proper answer. In the muggle world, the war hadn't been; just a few terrorist attacks that nobody could remember clearly.

"Different."

Eliza shot her a startled glance and Su blinked before realizing that her voice had rapped the word out a lot harsher than necessary. She couldn't quite work up the energy to apologize, so she sent Eliza a smile instead, hoping she'd be forgiven for her lapse in manners. She was tightly wound, so it didn't happen very often, but sometimes her calm slipped.

Usually when she allowed herself to think back.

Eliza smiled back uneasily, and they continued on. This time, Su was the one to instigate conversation, willing the other girl to forget about her reaction. She wasn't at all interested in the origin of the church they'd stopped in front of, but it was the first question she could think of.

"Oh, that's St. Anne's Church..." Eliza proceeded to relay the history of the church and Su gradually relaxed as the younger girl's words eased into a genuinely excited flow.

"You know a lot about Forks," Su commented during a lull in the conversation. At Su's request, they'd entered Forks only supermarket to buy groceries.

A slow blush spread across Eliza's cheeks, "I enjoy history."

She shrugged a little, seemingly wanting to make light of it, and Su had a feeling that Eliza was unsure about her reaction to the little revelation. Apparently, their peers views on studying for fun was as hindering here as it was in any house but Ravenclaw in Hogwarts.

Su glanced at her peripherally, weighing her options. It wasn't like a small comment would hurt...

"I do, as well."

Eliza's head snapped to the side, and she stared at her with wide eyes. A frown tugged at Su's lips at the other girl's astonished expression. Surely it wasn't that unusual?

"You're a very strange boy," Eliza finally commented, huffing a laugh. The words weren't said maliciously, or even teasingly, but Su still froze for the span of a second. That was not the kind of thing she wanted to hear from anybody here.

"Surely an interest in history isn't _that_ uncommon?" she asked, keeping her tone as light as she could and her head down, pretending to calculate the cost for the tomatoes she'd gathered in her cart.

Su could feel Eliza cock her head and look at her, "Well, no, maybe not. It's just that most boys wouldn't _admit_ it."

"Oh." Su could have hit herself for that faux pas. She hadn't thought something so innocent would be picked up on this quickly, and she wasn't sure how much of an impact this would have on her 'boyishness'. She'd never been a fourteen year old boy, and apparently in the muggle world, the lines between the genders were more set than she'd realized.

"I didn't mean to offend you."

Eliza bent down to look at her and Su only realized how long she'd kept her silence when she met the other girl's worried gaze.

"I'm not offended," she denied, offering Eliza a half-smile and straightening. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to act the part of a boy if simple things like this would throw her curve balls. Gender shouldn't matter this much, shouldn't stop you from pursuing your interests...

"Well, if you're not offended, you're in very deep, wrinkly-browed thought."

Su blinked and almost brought a hand up to feel her forehead manually before she realized that the other girl was just teasing her.

"It's a habit of mine. We can't all be baboons, you realize," Su answered, half-smirking.

"Are you calling me a baboon, Sully?"

Eliza didn't look genuinely mad, but Su still held up her hands in a bid for peace. She would have dropped the tomatoes if her reflexes hadn't been as honed as they were. Eliza smothered a laugh and Su looked up, still with a half-smirk in place;

"I was actually referring to my gender peers," she quipped back, unbending enough to find some real enjoyment in their banter. Eliza laughed out loud, nodding in apparent agreement.

"You're a lot less childish than most of the other male students in our year," she eyed her across the cart, seemingly appraising him, and Su wondered where the shy girl she'd met up with had gone. Her first impression seemed a lot less fitting now.

Su shrugged, placing two cartons of milk in the cart. She didn't want to invoke a discussion about maturity with someone several years her junior. Not only would it be incredibly hypocritical; she'd also feel much too uncomfortable bashing 'her own' gender for too long.

"Maybe you aren't looking carefully enough?" she suggested mildly, because she knew there was more to people like Oliver and Leo, even if they often refused to let on about it. Even Umio hid a lot of what he really thought; apprehension about stepping outside the approved lines blocking much of his potential. It was frustrating to watch when you were only an observer.

A fleeting look of skepticism passed through Eliza's eyes and she shrugged noncommittally. Su hadn't expected an outright agreement and she wondered if it was only her older age that allowed her to see under the surface, or if her scrutinizing habits from the war was a larger part of the reason.

Not that it mattered. She'd only be here a year, and she couldn't force anyone to change even if she wanted them to. Growing up would take care of that.

"Why do you need to shop for all of this by yourself, anyway?" Eliza asked as they made their way towards the last stop before the cashier; the meat disk.

"What do you mean?" Su asked absently, skimming the list to make sure she hadn't missed anything, before stuffing it in her back pocket.

"It just seems a little unfair that you have to do all the shopping. Can't your parents do a bit of shopping themselves too?"

Su stilled, mind racing. She couldn't deviate from the information she'd given the school and the trio, but she didn't really feel like causing any more uncomfortable moments between them.

"They're dead," she blurted out and could have smacked her forehead into the wall when Eliza's eyes widened with shock and her expression turned almost excruciatingly apologetic. Her mouth usually didn't betray her like this, but since it had, she'd have to do damage control before the situation spiraled out of control.

She held up a finger imperiously. "Stop. You didn't know."

Eliza opened her mouth with a passive aggressive expression that said she was going to argue, but Su shook her head before she could gather her wits about her.

"I know you didn't mean anything by it; it's all right, I just don't want to talk about it." Her voice started out strong but grew quieter towards the end of the sentence entirely without her consent and Eliza nodded, looking much too sympathetic.

The awkward silence persisted until they exited the store, with Su trying to balance two of the heavy bags and Eliza struggling with the third. She would have liked to offer to take the last one as well, since it was her groceries, but she just barely managed to hold onto the first two without tilting over in one direction or other.

Keeping her eyes firmly on the ground to keep her balance, with Eliza staggering next to her, they slowly made their way out to the street.

"I don't mean to – state the obvious -" Eliza panted after about ten minutes of walking, placing her bag on the ground and blowing cool air over her palm, "- but I don't think we'll make it back to the rez like this."

Su nodded, feeling miserable and a bit pathetic. She should have thought ahead before buying so many heavy kinds of food, despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to use Lightweight charms. It was a rather horrible miscalculation on her part.

"I know. I'm sorry; you go on ahead, I'll try to think of something," she offered the younger girl a way out as an apology, but Eliza rolled her eyes in answer.

"I'm not as uber-polite as you, but I'm not _that_ rude either. We'll come up with something together."

She smiled, and Su nodded thankfully. Were people usually this helpful? Eliza didn't even really know her, and darkness was starting to creep around the edges of the day, with ominous-looking clouds gathering at the horizon. She wouldn't have been surprised if Eliza had accepted her offer.

The girl must have seen her eyeing them, because she spoke up, "Looks like the rain will be here in a few minutes." There was a resigned note in her voice and Su held back a wince. What she wouldn't do for some magical help right now.

"Are you two okay?" a dark voice asked from behind them and Su practically swung around to position herself in front of Eliza, before she realized that the very large Quileute guy who'd called for their attention wasn't a Death Eater.

Damn reflexes, she cursed inwardly and held back a blush when she saw the man's raised eyebrows.

"Jumpy much?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as if sizing her up. His nose scrunched a little, reminding her of how Professor Lupin had sometimes done the same during the year he'd been a teacher. This man was no werewolf, though, just a gigantic unknown male with unknown intentions.

Su shrugged, awareness split between Eliza and the guy in front of them. She wasn't sure why he felt like a threat; maybe she was just jumpy because she hadn't heard his approach, despite her war-honed hearing. She also saw a hint of fighter in his stance, the way he kept his feet and rocked back on his heels as if preparing for a leap.

"Seth Clearwater?" Su heard Eliza gasp behind her, and it took Su several moments to remember where she'd that name before. The boy the trio had been concerned about... except, he didn't look very much like a boy. He looked her age, maybe even older than that.

"Hey, Bell." He waved and smiled at her in a way that took years off his face, and Su suddenly wasn't sure why she'd been so certain that the guy was older than her. With an expression like that, there was no way he was anything but younger.

"You two know each other?" Su questioned redundantly. Still, she was relieved when she got identical nods in return, even if Eliza was still almost-gaping at Seth.

"Yeah, we worked together on a project for school a few months ago," Seth supplied, nodding to himself. His beaming smile was still firmly in place and Su absently wondered if this was what people meant when they said '1000 watt smile'.

"You've – changed," Eliza choked out, shifting forward to approach him. Feeling a little awkward a the third wheel of their reunion, Su took a few steps back, not wanting to disturb them.

"For the better!" Seth commented brightly, and Su was sure that if he'd been a puppy, Seth's tail would have been wagging frantically.

"You look happier than you did before," Eliza continued, her voice a little absent, as if she was just talking aloud to herself.

"I am happier. Stuff that was confusing has worked out," he rambled a little, and though she doubted even Eliza understood the meaning behind that answer, Su couldn't help but chuckle quietly. She wasn't expecting either of the two to hear her, but Seth's head immediately turned.

He bounded across the short distance and grinned at her, drawing a hand forward for her to shake. Su took it and blinked at the heat radiating from his palm and into hers. Before she had a chance to comment on it, the hand withdrew.

"Eh, I'm Seth Clearwater. I haven't seen you around before; you new?"

Su turned to look up at him and smiled, politeness masking her confusion at his too-high body temperature. She might have been imagining it, but she was almost sure she saw a hint of panic dodge behind the large grin he flashed her at the end of his introduction.

"Ah, yes. I just moved here a few days ago. Sully Lin, nice to meet you."

Again she thought she saw a hint of relief in his eyes before his grin reformed. Eliza stepped up around him, dragging one of the bags with her, and interrupted Su's discreet staring.

"Need help with that?" Seth asked and continued quickly, "I rode with Sam in his car, and I don't think he'd mind taking you two back with us."

Su recognized that name quicker than she'd remembered Seth's, and unease curled in her stomach, though she kept a neutral expression on her face.

"Sam Uley?" Eliza asked slowly, and Su could hear the frown in her voice, despite keeping her eyes firmly on Seth. He nodded quickly, confirming it, and didn't seem to notice their hesitation. Su wasn't sure if Eliza had heard the same things about this Uley person as she had, but it was obvious that she'd heard _something_, at least.

"Ah, sure..." Eliza trailed off, glancing at her sheepishly. It would have been hard to say no to Seth's offer without appearing rude, "If you're sure he won't mind..?"

"He won't," Seth shook his head quickly and waved an arm in a come-hither gesture, before promptly grabbing the three bags as if they weighed nothing. Though considering the guy's bulging muscles and height, to him they probably didn't.

"Ah, I can take -" Su started, a little embarrassed at how easily Seth managed to carry the bags, but he cut her of with a grinned denial. Su would have been annoyed, but Seth had such an easy-going air about him that she couldn't quite work up the feeling.

They all trotted off towards a large jeep parked a few dozen meters away. It took a few minutes for Su to notice the face in the driver's seat, and she wondered if she should have prepared herself for meeting Sam Uley in some way.

* * *

**A/N:** Ah, got around to posting this. School kicking my ass, co-writing taking my time and I'm not too good at multitasking, unfortunately. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

SanToro: Sully is enrolled in the reservation's school. Sorry for the confusion.

Hope you'll enjoy the chapter and that you'll take the time to review!


	4. Meetings part I

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 4: Meetings part I_

* * *

The car door clicked open, and Sam stepped out. He was even larger than Seth, towering over them all at what couldn't have been shorter than around 6"3, with muscles like something out of a muggle comic book. The one with the green creature that always ripped his shirt, Su thought vaguely, trying to remember why it was rude to stare openly.

"Seth?"

Sam's voice sounded as if it was rumbling out of his chest, like thunder in the distance. Su didn't doubt that this man knew how to be intimidating – probably without ever really having to try. For some reason he reminded her of a general or an Auror captain; back ramrod straight and eyes sweeping the area for potential threats. Perhaps she was just projecting it onto him, but when his eyes landed on her, the impression just grew stronger.

There was wariness in that gaze, and weariness that spoke of more than just sleepless nights.

And suddenly – she wasn't entirely sure how, because he hadn't said a word to her yet – she was almost sure that whatever the rumors said about Sam Uley, they were barking up the wrong tree. There was something there... but it wasn't drug-dealing.

_Well_, she amended, glancing at his almost unnaturally large tree-trunk arms again, _it's a tad too early to be trusting gut feelings._

"Sam, this is Eliza Bell and Sully Lin," Seth introduced them and Eliza waved timidly while Su nodded. The man hadn't done anything yet, so she wasn't about to overtly consider him a threat, even if he did raise her hackles.

"Sam Uley," he greeted them before his dark eyes turned to pierce her. She didn't like the way he seemed to be appraising her, though the thought was hypocritical, since she'd been doing judt the same to him.

"I haven't seen you before, though I do remember hearing your name..." he trailed off, narrowing his eyes a little, before seeming to shake off stray thoughts. "You're Nenya's grandson."

Su's eyes widened involuntarily and Sam nodded, as if confirming something to himself, still watching her with those inscrutable dark eyes. For whatever irrational reason she almost expected him to call her on her bluff, but when he remained silent, Su gathered her composure. He'd called her Nenya's grand_son_, after all. She was being much too paranoid, and if she couldn't manage to keep her wits about her the moment someone mentioned anything uncomfortable, she'd end up causing suspicion that way instead.

"Yes. I moved into her house a few days ago..." clearing her throat awkwardly, she continued, "How did you know?"

Sam shrugged, like a large cat rolling its shoulders, "The Elders informed me. I am sorry for your loss; she was a good woman."

Su sucked in a surprised breath. "You knew her?" She hadn't expected anyone besides the older generation to have met her, though she wasn't sure why exactly she'd thought that. It wasn't like her grandmother had been a solitary woman - on the contrary, she'd been very active in the social scene until her death.

"Briefly, yes. The Elders were very surprised to find that your grandmother willed her house to a boy your age, especially since nobody had heard of her having a grandchild before you appeared with her will."

Su smiled tightly, somehow managing to keep her rising panic at bay when she answered, "She and my father were never on the best of terms, but I got along with her rather well." It was the truth, so she didn't feel too bad relaying the facts to Sam, even if they were a bit... bent out of their true shape.

"I see."

Sam watched her for several tense moments, and Su could feel Eliza shifting from foot to foot behind a confused-looking Seth.

"Do you need a ride?" he finally asked, and though Su wasn't sure how he knew what they'd approached him for, she didn't feel up to asking. Her nerves were frayed from their short conversation. _Maybe this is how a criminal under questioning feels,_ she wondered as she considered whether his offer was worth accepting if it would be accompanied by more disquieting questions.

"Um, yes, we do need a ride, if you wouldn't mind," Eliza stammered, and despite the fact that the younger girl had just answered for them both, Su only felt grateful that she'd shifted the Sam's attention towards herself.

When they were all parked securely in the backseat of the large car, Seth turned his head and and looked over Eliza's head to catch Su's gaze. Looking curious, he asked;

"I didn't know the Elder Nenya had relatives living outside the rez..."

"Neither did I," Eliza added under her breath, and Seth's eyes darted down to the younger girl before shooting back up.

Su's insides lurched a bit, not just because of the bumpy road underneath the car's wheels, and she tried for a nonchalant head shake. Her Occlumency shields were working overtime to keep a neutral expression on her face, and Su prayed they wouldn't fail her now.

"Not many people did. I visited her every now and then with my mother, but since we lived across the ocean..." she let the sentence hang and shrugged. It was the truth, so no pitfalls there. Yet.

"Do you have any photographs from your visits?" Sam broke into the conversation suddenly and Su's eyes rose to meet the intense gaze in the rear view mirror. _Why does this question feel like a trap?_ Su wondered, but nodded cautiously.

"Not with me, but I do have a couple in the cottage..." She did, actually, and it was one of the few times she was genuinely, wholeheartedly grateful for her decidedly unfeminine appearance. With her braids flowing dorsally and with her reluctance to wear skirts, she had several pictures where she could pass for a boy, even if her haircut was different.

The air in the car suddenly felt lighter, as if she'd passed some kind of test with that confirmation, and Sam's eyes suddenly seemed a lot less probing.

"Perhaps you would consider coming by to show Quil Sr a few? I believe he would appreciate it," Sam added and Su nodded, slightly confused. Nenya had mentioned the other Elders' names before and she recognized the one Sam spoke of, though she had no idea how he looked like or why he in particular would want to see the pictures.

"Sure. We have quite a lot of homework this week, but if Saturday suits..?" Su suggested tentatively and her eyebrows almost rose when Sam actually smiled at her when he nodded, just a little. It softened his features into something a lot less forbidding and his made his eyes a little less intense, almost kind of... comforting.

It was strange how many facets there seemed to be to Sam Uley.

* * *

The trio stared at her, incredulous expressions painted across their features. Su stared back, bemused at their overreaction.

"You're going over to _Sam Uley's_ house?" Oliver half-shouted and Su leaned back a little to avoid the crumbs spraying across the table as he spoke.

"I'm going to see Quil Sr, not Sam Uley," - _though he might be there as well,_ Su conceded mentally. She didn't know where Quil Sr house was, but Seth had promised he'd take her there. She wasn't sure if he even knew where her grandmother's house was, but she supposed he'd ask the Elder in question. Or Sam, since she wouldn't be surprised if he knew it.

"But there is no way Uley won't be there! Quil Sr's grandson is part of Uley's gang!" Leo added, and seemed like he was only barely keeping himself from flailing in alarm.

_I didn't know that. I wonder how large this gang of Sam's is..._ Su mused, partly successful in ignoring Oliver's and Leo's overenthusiastic tirades on why she couldn't go alone to see Quil Sr.

"I'm not going alone," Su cut in, before Oliver's estimation of the the likelihood that Sam had mafia connections would make her smack him over the head. Or bang her forehead into the lunch table in amused disbelief.

"Seth Clearwater offered to take me. Unless, of course, you believe he is also a part of this apparent diabolical plot to play the Godfather of the Quileute," she finished flatly, grateful to see the flush creep up Oliver's neck.

_The _mafia_, honestly._

"Wait, you met Seth?" Umio spoke up before Oliver had a chance to gather his wits about him enough to snap out a come-back. There was an amused glint in the quietest member of the trio's eyes, and Su thought the boy might be used to having his two friends throw ridiculous conspiracy theories around.

"Yes, outside the super market. He looked fine and seemed happy."

More than happy, really; brimming with puppy-dog glee was more like it. Su eyed the other boys' reactions and felt a stab of pity when she saw relief flash neigh simultaneously across their faces. She knew what it was like to fear for a friend – or a classmate – so maybe she shouldn't go at them so hard. Sam Uley was a rather intimidating man, except when he smiled - which seemed like a rather rare event.

"Oh," Umio breathed, tension loosening from his shoulders. He slumped a little in his chair, drawing a hand through his tousled black hair.

"I'll be fine, all right?" she waited to see them nod, and then she sighed. "Thanks for worrying about me, though. It's good to know you have my back."

She turned her attention to her food before the atmosphere could become uncomfortable, but she thought she saw pleased-but-uncomfortable smiles stretch Oliver and Leo's lips, and Umio's lips twitched upwards before he nodded.

It was good to have friends, even if they didn't know the real her. Having someone care was unexpectedly comforting, the the ensuing silence was a lot less awkward than it could have been.

The weekend came quicker than Su had been prepared for, and when the Saturday morning dawned she found that she was a lot more nervous than she'd thought she would be. _Maybe Oliver's ridiculous suggestions did make an impact after all,_ she considered, slightly embarrassed at the thought. Sam Uley was a perfectly normal – if huge – muggle man, and while she'd felt somewhat intimidated by him at first, he'd been nothing but polite. Kind of.

She wasn't succeeding in calming herself down, so she tightened her Occlumency shields and forced her troubled thoughts to retreat behind a wall of calm. She'd gotten better at calming herself this way, and though it was somewhat upsetting that she'd used the calming wall often enough to become proficient with it so quickly, it was still a sign of progress in her abilities.

_Positive thoughts, positive thoughts,_ Su tried to force the mantra to work, because she refused to dwell on pains she didn't have the time to heal properly. The shields were a temporary band-aid on a flesh wound, but she didn't have time to get the metaphorical stitches and tend to it properly.

_Maybe in a year, when things have gone back to normal. If they ever will._

Seth had said he'd come to retrieve her around noon, so Su forced herself to eat a banana for lunch. Lunch was usually something she never had, but she felt the need to occupy her hands with something. And her mouth too, before she managed to worry her bottom lip all the way through.

Eying the fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen table, Su sighed quietly. She knew she was still eating much too little, but she honestly couldn't help it. She wasn't trying to avoid eating consciously – most of the time, anyway – but oftentimes, and especially after nightmares, the thought of food made her gorge rise.

Su sat, quietly reading one of her grandmother's old books, when there was a knock on the door. _Finally,_ she thought in relief. The wait was making her more anxious than she already was, and she was anxious to get going. Seeing Seth's goofy grin would probably help tone down the nervousness she felt about meeting one of Nenya's old friends.

Grabbing the three muggle photographs she'd chosen for the occasion, Su made her way to the door.

"Hey," Seth grinned, looking as happy as he had during their initial meeting. Su waved lightly, clasping the photos in a careful grip as she turned to lock the door.

It shouldn't have surprised her that it was raining – it being Forks' most common weather – but she couldn't help but sigh a little. She didn't mind the rain usually, but she was getting a little tired of getting drenched whenever she walked out the door. Her umbrella never had the time to dry properly either.

Thankfully it was only a light drizzle that hit her face when she stepped off the porch, and Seth's smile went a long way towards calming her.

"Have you met Quil Sr?" Su asked as Seth steered her along an unfamiliar street. He was walking just a step ahead of her, but his legs were much longer than hers, so she had to walk twice as fast to keep up. Since Seth seemed oblivious to her near-jog, and because she didn't really mind the exercise, she didn't mention it. It might have been her pride talking, but it would have struck her as rather pathetic thing to complain about.

Seth whirled around and exclaimed with surprise, "Yeah, sure! My father was a friend of his," his voice dipped down unhappily at the end of the sentence and Su recognized the tone of voice immediately. _Loss._

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to arouse bad memories," she said carefully and Seth glanced down at her, shaking his head.

"Not your fault," he muttered and then seemed to make an effort to shake off any negative thoughts, smiling at her crookedly. _A brave smile,_ Su thought somberly.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, before Seth reverted back to his customary cheerfulness to explain the rest of his family; his mother and his sister Leah.

"You have any siblings?"

Su shook her head in denial. "I'm an only child." It was an uncomfortable topic for her to talk about. Most things concerning her family hurt enough just to think about these days, and she would prefer not to speak of it with someone she barely knew.

* * *

**A/N:** Christmas time is terrible for fanfiction writing. On the plus side, I've Christmas cleaned and bakesd gingerbread cookies, and my Christmas shopping is all but done. That you for the support in the form of review, they make me want to keep writing!

Oh, and because people asked: yes, this story is going to feature more than Su's POV. Seth's POV will come up in Meetings part II and Embry's sometime after that.

Please tell me what you thoguht of the chapter - especially the first part, with Sam and Su's interaction? I liked writing Sam, he's a pretty interesting guy.


	5. Meetings part II

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 4: Meetings part II_

_

* * *

_

Seth looked down at Sully's tousled mop of hair as the younger boy all but froze at his question. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't want to make the younger guy uncomfortable. Sully seemed like a pretty nice person, from what Seth could tell. _Even if he is a bit stiff,_ he acknowledged.

The boy's scent was a little odd as well, though Seth couldn't quite put his finger on why. It was a little mixed up, and felt muted in some places. He wasn't an expert at scenting – yet, anyway – so maybe some people did smell like this. It could be perfectly normal, for all Seth knew.

_And it's not like I can ask him,_ he grumbled internally. After Sam had gone all Alpha on the boy yesterday – and what was _that_ about? Seth hadn't patrolled yesterday, so he never got the chance to find out – he couldn't exactly blame Sully for being ill at ease, even if it was a bit upsetting.

Sam was a good person, even if he was very serious most of the time, and there was nothing as uncomfortable as having two people tense up the air with unsaid words.

"What's it like? Being an only child?" Seth wondered aloud.

He couldn't imagine it. Even before he and Leah had first phased, before Sam and his sister had had their falling out, Leah had always taken up a lot of space in the house. She was that kind of person, his sister. Seth didn't really mind though, because Leah had always been very good to him, even when she snapped at everybody else.

Seth had been so lost in thought that he only peripherally noticed how Sully's steps faltered. Before he'd become a werewolf, he probably wouldn't have noticed at all. Yet another benefit of being a totally awesome mythical creature.

"Well, it's... it means your parents tend to focus on you, all the time," Sully answered slowly, sounding like he was weighing his words carefully and changing their meanings in the middle. It was frustrating to realize that he wasn't able to follow what Sully was saying, because the younger boy looked like he really needed someone to listen.

"No escape, eh?" Seth commented lightly, trying to ease the suddenly tense situation. He didn't like the way the other boy's brow furrowed, or the way he fisted his hands.

Sully looked up at him with blank eyes, "Yes, precisely." And again Seth felt like he was missing something in the words, like there was some big clue he was supposed to get – or not "supposed to", but something that he should _realize_ – but he couldn't put his finger on what it was, just that it made him uncomfortable and wary.

He opened his mouth to ask Sully to explain himself, but was cut off before he could get the words out.

"This way?"

Sully indicated the split in the road with a wave and cocked his head a little towards the path to the right. Seth hadn't even noticed that they'd come to a halt, and that the younger boy had somehow ended up slightly ahead of him. _Some guide I am!_ he scoffed internally, flushing a little.

Sam was always yelling at him about keeping his mind in the moment, and not somewhere else – _I do not 'yell', Seth. I lecture._ - Seth could almost hear his Alphas stern voice at that thought and held back a guilty snicker. He did know that Sam was right, but it was so hard trying to stick to listening to unnecessary repeats about patrol schedules that Sam insisted on droning on and on and _on_ about...

He nodded at Sully's questioning look and they set off down the path, Seth once more walking just half a step ahead of the other boy.

It wasn't long until they reached Old Quil's house. Seth kind of wished they could have gone to Emily's and Sam's instead, because Em's cooking was to die for. Also, she made werewolf-sized portions...

Seth shrugged off the thoughts of food before his stomach started rumbling. That would have been kind of embarrassing at the moment.

"Well, here we are," Seth announced when they stood a few meters from the house's front. It looked pretty much the same as all other buildings in the rez, except for the tribal sign – a large wolf in a half moon circle – stamped over the entrance door.

Sully stared, not moving an inch. Seth wasn't sure if it was because he was nervous or what, but didn't say anything. He had a feeling the younger boy was working up his courage and didn't need Seth to distract him from it.

Not that he really understood what was so scary about meeting up with Old Quil to show him a few photos. The Elder was kind of wispy and ghostlike, but he was also frail, with a patience that rivaled Emily's. And that was saying something, because Emily was practically a saint.

The only time Seth had ever seen Em angry was before she'd gotten together with Sam, before she'd understood why Sam left Leah for her, seemingly out of the blue. Seth had been upset then too, because Leah had been so heartbroken it almost physically hurt to look at her.

But that was before he'd been told about imprinting, before he'd been in Sam's head and seen how Emily was a sun to eclipse all other light in his universe. It had been kind of humbling, and a bit embarrassing, feeling Sam's love for his girlfriend.

He hadn't been able to help but wonder if he'd imprint one day too, and if it'd work out as peacefully Jared and Kim's relationship had, or if there would be violence and heartache before things got settled down. He hoped there wouldn't be, but then again, his mother always did say that anything worth having needed to be fought for. That you'd be stronger for it in the long run.

"Seth? Lin?"

Seth jumped at the sudden interruptions of his thoughts. He'd had noticed Sam's approach peripherally, but since the oncoming presence wasn't a threat, it hadn't truly _registered_ with him. Sully seemed to have been caught off guard as well, startling and tensing at the sound of Sam's voice.

"Hey," Seth called out, waving. Sully shifted beside him and nodded to the Alpha, looking uncomfortable. It was a little disappointing that everyone felt so uncomfortable around Sam, though Seth could admit that Sam himself never exactly radiated approachability, which probably had something to do with it. It was kind of stupid though, because Sam had a really kind smile when he chose to show it, and wasn't really _that_ intimidating when you got to know him.

Unless, of course, you pissed him off. Then he really _did_ become intimidating. A small internal shudder passed through Seth as he remembered the last time Sam had been angry with the pack – those fangs and that growl weren't things to mock, that was for sure.

"Going to see Quil Sr?" he asked casually, eying them both. Seth barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Sam was practically the only person on the rez who called Old Quil, 'Quil Sr' even when the Elder wasn't in the vicinity. Seth couldn't quite remember if the Alpha had always done that or if it was a habit he'd developed after phasing into a wolf for the first time.

The pack all knew that Old Quil had been the one to calm Sam down and reassure him when the Alpha had thought he'd gone insane. There hadn't been any other wolves then, and the thought that Sam had had to go through his first phasing alone... it must have been awful. It _had_ been awful- Seth had seen the memories, the few times Sam's mind had wandered down those roads when they were patrolling together, and he couldn't imagine a worse way to have been introduced to their heritage.

He supposed that was why he felt such respect for their Alpha even though he didn't always agree with the guy's decisions. Sam had a kind of strength that Seth thought must be pretty rare in the world, and deserved to be admired.

"Yeah, we were just on our way in," Seth nodded happily and after a pause added, "Do you want to come with?"

Sam shot another look at Sully, who was standing stiffly in place, but didn't seem as uneasy as before, and slowly nodded. Seth wondered if he was going to get a headache from all the weird stuff in the air between the two, but said nothing. Sam was always one to keep his own council when he felt like it. Though that obviously never lasted for long, with the patrols and all lending his thoughts and concerns to everybody in the pack.

That was the only reason Seth didn't comment on it before dragging Sully by the arm and into the house. _Can't he see he's making Sully uncomfortable?_ Seth huffed internally when he felt how stiff the younger boy still was, despite cooperating with the way Seth was all but forcing him through the door.

It wasn't fair to Sully, having Sam act all suspicious and freak the guy out before he'd even gotten used to the rez. And Seth _liked_ Sully; the boy was kind of quiet and a little strange, but he was nice and polite and not very much like most of the other guys Seth knew. He was interesting, a breath of fresh air, and even if Seth could never tell him about the wolfy secret, he thought the guy could become a friend with a little coaxing from Seth's side.

Unless, of course, Sam scared him away with all his looks and the huffing-and-puffing he wasn't quite-but-almost doing.

"Quil Sr!" Seth singsonged, letting go of Sully's sleeve. He hadn't really noticed before how much shorter normal people had gotten compared to his present height. He hadn't been spending much time with anyone outside of the pack since he phased, except for his mother, Emily and Kim – who were all rather short even compared to regularly sized people – but he was very tall even compared to Sully, who must have been at least 5"5.

"Such ruckus you are making, young man," a frail voice answered, and Quil Sr appeared in the doorway leading to the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel and looking faintly disgruntled. Seth grinned at the Elder, ignoring his mood.

"But I brought your guest here for you," his grin widened when Quil Sr head rose from where he'd been folding the towel. Seth frowned a little, "And shouldn't Quil be doing that? You're too old-"

"-to fold a towel?" Quil Sr finished the sentence dryly, shaking his head a little in apparent amusement. "If I'm young enough to walk, I'm young enough to take care of one piece of laundry."

Seth huffed as the Elder's eyes moved from his face to look behind him, to where Seth and Sam were still standing. The old man had always been good at dismissing people without actually saying anything, and it was still as annoying as ever.

"Sam Uley," Quil Sr nodded to the alpha, a subtle respect in the tone of his voice that Seth would probably have missed without his werewolf hearing.

"Quil Sr," Sam nodded back solemnly and Seth resisted the urge to chuckle. The two of them always greeted each other this way, as if they'd just accidentally met at a funeral or at some other equally cheery occasion.

That mental image abruptly soured his mood, when he consciously realized what he'd just thought. _Funerals..._ Seth wasn't sure if it was a good sign that he'd started joking about things like that, or if he was being disrespectful by finding it funny.

Well, he could ponder that later, when he got back home. At the moment, he had to make sure Sully got through this meeting intact.

"And who might this be?" Quil Sr asked with a gleam in his eye that said he already knew the answer to the question. Seth was sure Sully must have noticed it as well, even though he just straightened and walked further into the hallway.

"Sully Lin, Nenya's grand – son," he stumbled a little over his words and Seth wondered if it was meeting Old Quil or having Sam at his back that was making him so hesitant. It was bemusing, having his quiet but rather witty new acquaintance suddenly turn so shy.

Old Quil smiled, stepping forwards to greet the other guy properly. He had a certain old man grace in his step that Seth had kind of admired when he'd been younger; most other old people he knew hobbled painfully, so he'd hoped that he might acquire that kind of grace when he reached Old Quil's age. Of course, that was before the wolf genes turned everything on its head, and he realized that getting old wasn't something he'd experience the normal way.

"So I've heard, so I've heard," he clasped his large hands around Sully's right and shook it briefly.

"Thank you for stopping by," he smiled and waved them farther into the house to gather around the living room table.

* * *

**A/N:** So, another chapter. Thanks to all who reviewed- I apologize for not answering all of them, I hadn't the time for that. Never doubt that they are what motivates me to post though, and that they _are_ taken into consideration ;)

Next chapter Su will finally meet Embry.

What did you think of this chapter? About Seth POV?


	6. Meetings part III

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 5: Meetings III_

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Last chapter: _"Thank you for stopping by," Quil Sr smiled and waved them farther into the house to gather around the living room table._

* * *

"It was no trouble," Su answered uncomfortably, following the elderly man into a large living room. She wasn't sure what to think about Quil Sr or the situation in general. Not sure if she was being paranoid, Su still thought that Sam's sudden appearance was a bit too coincidental to truly be a coincidence.

She resisted the urge to glance behind her and assess the older guy again; there was something rather spooky about the way such a large man could walk so silently. There were traces of that grace in Seth as well, though he was so loud and bright that she barely picked up on it if she didn't focus on him directly.

At Quil Sr insistence, Su seated herself in one of the large, worn armchairs by the end of the living room table, thankful that she wouldn't have to squeeze herself in between the two guys taking up the whole of the sofa standing along the wall. She was sure she heard it groan even before Seth flung himself next to Sam.

On the other hand, with the way everyone was staring at her, this was starting to feel a bit like an interrogation. Resisting the urge to tug nervously at her hair, Su fingered the photos in her palm and straightened up.

"Um, I have some photos here -" she saw the Elder's eyes light up and stood up to hand them to him across the table. "I'm sorry I didn't bring more... I haven't quite settled in, so I haven't had a chance to sort them yet..." she trailed off when she realized that Quil Sr was more focused on the photographs than on her stammering apology.

"When were these taken?"

Su cocked her head in thought, tapping her fingers against her thigh as she tried to remember. She wasn't prone to walking down memory lane by way of muggle photographs, but she didn't want to deny the elderly man the time-frame if it was important to him.

"Two of them were taken about three years ago and the third was taken about 18 months ago..."

Quil Sr nodded briefly, as if her answered settled something, and looked up with a slight smile; "You do look quite a bit like her, even more so then than you do now."

"Ah, yes. Mother would say that too sometimes. Said I had her eyes."

The sofa creaked as Sam shifted, and Su darted a glance towards him. His brow was creased in thought, eyes narrowed to slits, and it took her a second to realize that the expression wasn't angry, but rather _worried._

"Your mother is deceased?" he rumbled, and the sound of his voice was strangely rather comforting. Su shifted a little, nodding, and when she looked up again, his eyes were grim but not hard.

"My condolences."

"Thank you." Maybe Sam wasn't as scary or suspicious a character as she'd first thought. Maybe he was just like Oliver and Leo; lacking the ability to express emotions properly.

"Aren't you too young to be living alone, Sully?" Seth asked, frowning. When Quil Sr eyes sharpened at the question, Su felt like beating him over the head with her boots. She didn't want to draw the attention of any Elders! Especially not the one who had been a friend of her grandmother's!

"Not really. Or well, yes, usually – but I have permission, so it didn't seem like a problem here. Had I lived anywhere but the rez, though..." she trailed off, shrugging. The reservation had different rules than the outside did, which was a major reason why she'd chosen it as her escape resort.

"And you believe you are capable of taking care of yourself, young man?" Quil Sr interrupted her thoughts and Su barely resisted glaring at him. She wouldn't have believed a 14-year old boy capable of taking care of himself either, so the question wasn't quite as insulting as it could have been. It still annoyed her, though.

"He means no offense, Lin," Sam spoke up, and Su forced back an embarrassed blush at how quickly he'd caught on. She was good at hiding her emotions, and it was somewhat frightening to realize that there were people here who might be better at perceiving others states of minds than she was at hiding hers. That could potentially endanger her secret.

"I know," she muttered, continuing quickly, "But yes, I am capable of taking care of myself. I know how to cook and I do not live in squalor." The bite of tartness at the end of the sentence wasn't something she'd planned on, but since it had Quil Sr chuckling, she didn't even bother to try and smooth it over.

"I see. Well, that is good to hear, at least. I have a grandson a few years your senior who can't seem to keep his room clean for anything."

Su smiled a little, thinking back to the chaos that was Oliver's room. "Most of my peers are the same way," she nodded, agreeing.

"Where is Quil anyway?" Seth broke into the conversation, leaning forward to make eye contact with Quil Sr around Sam's massive body.

"He's out, but he should be coming back soon."

Was it just her imagination, or did the Elder briefly tense at the question? Su wasn't sure, but she knew the feeling of _managing_ that was so carefully not in Quil Sr measured tone of voice. The feeling grew even stronger at the way Seth just nodded thoughtfully, as if the non-answer was perfectly reasonable.

"_Hello_!"

"Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear," Quil Sr muttered, rising laboriously from the armchair. Sam sent a sharp-eyed gaze at the arch separating the living room from the hall and rose as well.

"With minions to boot," Seth murmured back, grinning at the chorus of voices that rose behind the younger Quil's greeting.

Su couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at the stampede of feet coming from the other room. She didn't like being in a house with with so many strangers, especially not if the incoming guys were part of Sam's "gang".

"Grandpa!" the voice belonging to the greeting called out, before another huge guy stepped through the doorway to the living room. _Why is he shirtless?_ was Su's first thought upon seeing him, muscles glistening with a sheen of sweat. His cut-off pants were dirty and looked very well worn, attesting to him having done much hard work wearing them. That, or he'd dragged them through mud recently.

"Such racket you make, grandson." Quil Sr sighed, though there was an amused twinkle in his eyes. Su got the feeling the old man liked the noise, that it was part of a comfortable routine.

"I'm not making a racket, you're all just too quiet," Quil quipped teasingly, smiling. He turned to nod to Sam – and what was it with the respect everyone seemed to show the man? It couldn't be just because he was so intimidating! - and then turned towards her, curiously.

Su rose, making a preemptive introduction. "Ah, hello. I'm Sully Lin."

Quil's eyes lightened with an expression of recognition. "Oh, so you're Lin. Nice to meet you, I'm the younger, more awesome, Quil."

The guy must have heard of her from his grandfather, though it was strange the way his eyes darted to Sam's before he answered. His introduction made her forget that though, and she smiled at him with a an eyebrow cocked. _When uncertain, project confidence._

"And modest too? How nice."

Quil's impish grin widened, and he suddenly looked a lot like Seth. She could see what Oliver and Leo meant when they'd said the guys all looked similar. Quil and Seth could easily pass for brothers, with Sam as an older sibling or a cousin.

"How come they get to raid the kitchen before even coming to say hi?" Seth asked grumpily and Su turned to him in surprise. _Raiding the kitchen? ...Oh._ Now that she strained her ears to listen for it, she could make out voices from the other side of the wall.

"Because we've been out pat- _working_," Quil said, trying for a superior tone but ending up tripping over his words instead. Sam shot him an annoyed glare for whatever reason, and Su was once again stuck with the feeling that there was something going on under the surface that she wasn't quite seeing. '_Pat-working'?_

"But I'm hungry too! And you could have gone to Emily's, you know," Seth added, and Quil's embarrassed-worried smile disappeared from his face.

"I live here, you realize," he said dryly and then turned to his grandfather, the smile quickly slipping back into place.

"We're planning on having a bonfire this week," he said, sounding pleased and Quil Sr nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes, that seems reasonable. The forecast said there wouldn't be much rain this week."

Seth snorted, "Since when do we trust the forecast?" Then he brightened, "Oh, is it 'cause Claire is coming?" he asked teasingly, and was rewarded with a glare from Quil and a warning look from Sam.

"Who's Claire?" Su asked curiously. A girlfriend, probably, from the way Quil's eyes immediately started radiating protectiveness.

"My imp- cousin," he choked out. Sam tensed and Seth looked like either she or Quil had made a terrible faux pas.

Su blinked slowly, "Your _imp_?" _Of all nicknames to call his cousin, he chooses '_Imp'_? The cousin can't be too __pleased with that..._

"Eh, ah – she's a little imp," Quil laughed, sounding uncomfortable and apologetic. Su wasn't sure why he'd feel the need to apologize, but she supposed she couldn't blame him.

"You call her that to her face? Imp?" Su asked sceptically.

"She's two!" Quil defended himself quickly and Su blinked again, then resisted frowning in askance. _He's excited because his two-year old cousin is coming?_ She stared at him. _...Maybe he just really likes children?_

Su emerged from her increasingly confused thoughts to see Sam observing her, mouth turned down in a frown. Su opened her mouth to ask-

_BAM!_

"Boys, don't you dare destroy the kitchen!" Quil Sr raised his frail voice, looking worried for whatever had just gone crashing to the floor. Su didn't blame him. She imagined having the "boys" visit was like inviting bulls into a china shop.

"Who did you bring with you, Quil?" the Elder asked, turning to his grandson.

"Paul and Embry," he answered absently, sticking his head out the door, presumably to take in the damage. "And it was a pot falling to the floor just now, so nothing broken," he added nervously at his grandfather's look of disapproval.

"I thought you and Paul were the only ones working today?" Seth asked, looking at Sam, who nodded. _Why would Seth assume that Sam would know Quil's work schedule?_ Unbidden, the mental image of Sam dressed in a tuxedo, ordering people around and looking generally Godfather-ish, popped into her mind. _Damn Oliver, making me paranoid._

"Yeah, but we met Embry on the way here and he decided to come with," Quil shrugged.

"For the food," Quil Sr added sagely, lips twitching, and his grandson nodded emphatically.

"What? We're hungry!" a new voice said, belonging to another huge guy ambling through the door, carrying the largest sandwich Su had ever seen. His gaze assessed the room, lingering on her for a moment before he nodded to Sam.

There was something about this guy that had her hackles raising the way they first did when she met Sam. Something in the way he moved - she could practically see the aggressiveness and temper in his gait. It was as if he was just waiting for a brawl to partake in, and that made her nervous. Without her magic, a guy like this was a threat, because he showed every sign of knowing how to actually use his muscles and size to his advantage.

"How unusual, Paul," Quil Sr deadpanned and Seth grinned when Paul's face twisted in a snarl. Su's brow creased when she examined his face, wondering if this guy was also related to the others somehow. He could definitely have passed for a close relative of the others. _And why are they all so handsome? s_he wondered._ Maybe they really _are_ related?_

"I didn't know you were holding this cozy get-together, Old Quil," Paul said carelessly, chomping down on his sandwich with all the grace of a starving wolf.

"Paul," Sam said warningly, obviously disliking the guy's show of disrespect, though Quil Sr himself didn't seem to mind. Paul waved a hand lazily, grunting something that might have an apology, an affirmative confirmation of the warning, or him choking on a tomato slice.

Finally the last guy lumbered in, toting an equally large sandwich as well as a bottle of soda in one hand, and wearing a content smile. His hand was so large that his fingertips almost met the tip of his thumb around the bottle and all Su could think was that those hands could probably strangle her very easily. _Maybe they're martial artists or something; maybe that's why they raise my hackles so,_ she contemplated, because she wasn't usually _this_ jumpy, even around large unknown men. _For Merlin's sake, I've seen _giants_! These guys are tiny compared to those creatures!_

"Embry, you're sharing that," Seth said, staring at the fizzing soda. Embry looked up from his perusal of the sandwich and smiled a little, eyes flashing in challenge. He reminded her a bit of Sam; more serious and even-tempered than the other guys, though not enough to be intimidating the way Sam was.

"You are not fighting over a bottle of fizzy drink," Sam stated authoritatively, sounding exasperated with the way Seth had been preparing to pounce on the other guy. "Especially not while in the presence of a guest," he added when Seth looked prepared to argue.

"Who are you anyway?" Paul asked and Su turned to look at him. When he'd ended up lounging in the other armchair she didn't know, but he didn't look like he was planning on moving anytime soon. And yet she didn't feel as though he was off-guard; rather he felt like a panther, ready to attack without a moment's notice, even from that awkward-looking supine position.

"Sully Lin," Su introduced herself again and saw Paul's eyebrows raise.

"Nenya's grandkid?" _Why does everyone know grandmother? And for that matter, why does everyone know that I'm her grandchild?_ Su wondered, annoyed and a little nervous. It was uncomfortable, having men she'd never met before act like they'd been expecting to meet her. _Maybe the grapevine here is unusually fast..._

"Yes, nice to meet you."

Paul grunted something incomprehensible and added, "Paul Meraz." He flung the last piece of his giant sandwich into his mouth, and Su wondered with some measure of shock how he managed to eat a sandwich the size of her arm in less than five minutes.

Noticing movement in her peripheral vision, Su saw the last guy approaching, his hand stretched out to clasp hers. Not having expected the politeness, she looked up, meeting his warm brown eyes.

The moment their gazes met, he stiffened abruptly, as if lightning had hit him – she'd seen that happen once due to a spell; all muscles tensed involuntarily with the face freezing in a grimace – and his hand twitched and clenched around the tips of her fingers, tightening the awkward handshake before she'd managed to get a proper hold.

He was still staring at her though, despite the painful-looking stiffness of his body. Su wasn't sure how to describe such a look, even in her own mind. It was as if he'd just walked into the sun for the first time, as if the light was blinding his eyes, but the novelty of the experience kept him from turning his gaze away.

"Hello?" she asked carefully when Embry showed no signs of letting go of her hand completely, and even fewer signs of turning back from a statue into a living person again. _Maybe he's seizing? Maybe he's sick!_ Su wondered, worry starting to set in and deepening her voice against her will.

The look faded out of his eyes, though a hint of it lingered – until it transformed, morphing into realization – _what was going on? What was it that she wasn't getting about the undercurrents that everyone else in the room seemed to know?_ - from realization into shock, and then a confused sort of horror that had Su's own body stiffen a little in response. She didn't like that look, had seen similar ones much too often during the Carrows' reign.

"You have _got_ to be fucking _kidding_ me," Paul exclaimed from his suddenly upright perch in the armchair, staring at both her and Embry. The words seemed to undo whatever had kept Embry in place and he all but staggered back a step, sporting a look Su couldn't even begin to name.

"_Paul_!" Sam barked a reprimand, but he was also staring at her, his previously calm expression twisted into surprise bordering on outright shock. Then his eyes darted to Embry's face; "Embry, outside, _now_."

Embry nodded jerkily, head bobbing like on one of those dolls she'd seen in a muggle toy shop once. It would have looked humorous if it wasn't for the expressions on everyone's faces, like the roof was collapsing over their heads. Then he was out, Sam going after him – and they were fast, so fast they couldn't be anything but martial artists – and the room was quiet, both Paul and Seth and Quil just staring at her, with Quil Sr looking through the doorway the other two disappeared from.

"_What _just happened?" Su asked, genuinely baffled and too confused to try and puzzle it out on her own. Forget undercurrents- these were underwater _tempests_. She was missing way too many pieces of this puzzle to even attempt to hypothesize about it.

Her voice broke the silence, but not the general confusion.

"I didn't know this could happen!" Seth's voice rose, sounding upset and worried, looking to Quil Sr for answers.

"_No shit_! You think _anyone_ knew this could happen? As if this _fucked-up shit_ isn't messed up enough already-" Paul's voice deepened until it was a growl, thundering from the back of his throat. And suddenly he was shaking, his whole body wracked with trembles, and the armchair trembling with him, making the floor creak.

"Language Paul," Quil Sr commented, still watching the doorway.

"Who cares about language! Grandfather, you saw what just happened-," Quil began, but the Elder interrupted him before he could finish his statement adequately;

"No, I didn't. We have no confirmation yet," he said, sounding too calm for the situation. Su wasn't sure if he was trying to calm everyone else down or if he just wasn't as upset as the teenagers were, but either way, it made her realize that whatever was going on wasn't something she was a part of, even if she might have been the one to set it off. _Merlin, I hope not._

"The look on his face is fucking confirmation enough! We fucking _know_ that look!" Paul shouted, rising from the armchair, trembling intensifying. She wouldn't have been surprised to see his eyes roll up into his head at this point.

_Maybe he's epileptic?_ Su thought with worry, not too comforted by the fact that nobody else seemed to care that Paul was practically vibrating out of his clothes. Or even notice much; Quil was staring into thin air and Seth still hadn't turned his eyes away from her.

"Are you alright?" Su inquired hesitantly, trying not to flinch when his eyes came to rest on her.

"_I'm not the one with the fucking problem here!_" he shouted, almost making the room crackle with the intensity of his cry. Su couldn't help the way she jerked, even though she wasn't so much frightened as startled. Paul didn't sound angry, rather he sounded extremely worried - or perhaps pained – and he wasn't moving as if to strike her, but Su was too wound up for her reflexes to still her knee-jerk reactions.

"Paul, it's not _his_ fault," Seth snapped, but Paul was already glaring at her apologetically. _I didn't know people could _glare_ apologetically,_ Su thought half-incoherently.

"Ah, should I – should I perhaps leave?" she asked Quil Sr, the urge to bury herself in her bed and ignore everything else suddenly too strong to ignore.

The Elder nodded slowly, "No offense to you, but that might be for the best."

Seth jumped up at the same time she stood to leave, feeling bruised and exhausted, and tilted his head with an expression of puppy-dog concern.

"I'll talk to you later Sully, okay?" he said, making it sound like a question rather than a firm statement, and Su nodded tiredly, accepting the photos Quil Sr was offering for her to take back.

She had a feeling this would be yet another sleepless night, but for another reason than usual. _Not that I'd be able to sleep with all these wolves howling,_ she thought with absent annoyance, hearing the howls in the distance.

* * *

**A/N:** It's been a while, hasn't it? I reread all your reviews for the previous chapter and got a burst of motivation to finish this one. I apologize for not answering all your reviews- since I have several stories going, I can't seem to find the time. I do read and reread every single one, though.

So. What did you think? Were the pack guys IC? What did you think about Su's and Embry's meeting?

Next chapter will be Embry POV ;)


	7. The Art of Panicking

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 5: The Art of Panicking_

* * *

Last chapter:_ Embry nodded jerkily, head bobbing like on one of those dolls she'd seen in a muggle toy shop once. It would have looked humorous if it wasn't for the expressions on everyone's faces, like the roof was collapsing over their heads. Then he was out, Sam going after him._

* * *

Embry phased the moment he reached the woods, clothes bursting off of his chest and fur taking its place. The heat enveloped his mind for one moment of unconsciousness and then he was on all fours, running, running, running.

_This can't be happening._

The thought kept swirling inside his head, trying to connect to mental images of a face he didn't want to imagine.

Sam's mind joined his and he wasn't sure if the Alpha's presence was a boon or a curse. He didn't want to make sense of this, didn't want to rationalize it, he wanted it _gone_.

_Embry, slow down._

Sam's voice was liquid in his mind, seeping through his frantic thoughts and denials with the ease that came of being the Alpha. Embry slowed down, letting Sam catch up to him and then circle around to look at him snout-to-snout.

_Embry, tell me what happened in there._

Embry shook his head sharply. _Nothing happened._

Even to himself, his answer didn't sound convincing and Sam didn't even have to raise mental eyebrows for him to start over.

_I don't know._

Better answer at least, more convincing – or it would have been, if Embry hadn't known that Sam could feel his emotional state, could feel his confusion and frenzy and denials and the source -

- _a soft round face with high cheekbones and plump lips, high eyebrows and short chocolate-colored hair - light brown eyes that seemed to look straight into him, framed by thick dark lashes_ -

Embry threw his head back and howled, ears flat against his furry scalp, trying to push the image of the _boy's_ face out of his mind, out of his _heart_. It didn't work, though. Instead of leaving him, the image grew stronger, as though it was painted in colors larger than life.

_So, you did imprint, _Sam's voice stated and Embry immediately felt the panic rush up his chest to knot in his throat, lodging there in the form of what in his human body might have been frustrated tears or perhaps a scream. He didn't know, didn't want to find out, didn't _care_. No, that was another lie - didn't _want_ to care; that was the truth.

_Sam – this isn't – I mean – this – I'm not –_ Embry tried, tripping over his words in his rush to get them out. He wasn't coherent, but one of the advantages of having another person share your mind-space was that he didn't have to be.

_You didn't ask to imprint on a boy,_ Sam continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, and Embry cringed at his blunt words. He didn't want to hear that, he didn't want it acknowledged.

_Damnit, Sam, I'm not gay!_ Embry shouted and then cringed even harder at his own words. He hadn't wanted to put that word into the equation this early. Hadn't wanted to put that word into the equation at all. This wasn't how it was supposed to work.

_I'm aware. I have been in your mind, you know, _Sam answered dryly, and a part of Embry's panic faded at his Alpha's calm tone. Sam wasn't freaking out about this, he was looking at it logically. Calmly. Objectively.

_But then, this isn't about him,_ Embry thought sourly. No, Sam had imprinted on a girl, and Jared had imprinted on a girl, and even though Quil had gone and imprinted on a toddler, Claire was a girl as well! She would grow out of that and into a woman – but _Sully Lin_ sure as hell wouldn't grow out of being male!

Again, hysteria threatened to take over and Embry squeezed his eyes shut.

_**Calm down,**_ Sam commanded in his Alpha voice, and for once Embry was glad that he couldn't disobey his Alpha's orders. The calm settled over him like a cloak, smothering the panic and turning it into something more manageable.

_I thought imprinting was for passing on the wolfy genes?_ He asked, miserable and confused and wanting to find an explanation, any explanation. Because he wasn't gay. He _wasn't_ – he'd never looked at another guy like that. Never - and the guys in the pack should know, since they were in his mind regularly.

_We do know, Embry,_ Sam said, sitting back on his haunches to look him in the eye. _I have no idea why you would imprint on another male when the legends say that imprinting is for passing on the genes – _Sam continued, and Embry whined a little. If the Alpha didn't know, then nobody would. Maybe he was just an accident.

_- but the legends also claim that imprinting is very rare, and wouldn't you say that has been disproved?_ Sam questioned and Embry nodded, because that, at least was true. Sam, Jared and Quil had already imprinted.

_Doesn't make this any easier,_ he muttered, still feeling miserable and confused. He could hear Sam's sigh rumble through his head, and somewhere in the back of his mind wondered how the alpha could sigh with his mind.

_Embry, I won't let you ignore this with irrelevant thoughts,_ Sam said and continued before Embry could defend himself. _You are not the only person who will be affected by this, you realize?_

That pulled him up short for a moment, because he hadn't even considered what the boy would think about this. He didn't even know anything about the boy, just what he'd seen in Sam's mind the first time the Alpha met the boy.

_The boy's name is Sully Lin,_ Sam said redundantly and Embry growled. Wasn't he allowed any leniency in this? He wasn't planning on starting some kind of – _relationship_ with a boy!

_With Sully Lin_, he amended before Sam could snap at him. He'd just have to – stay away, because it was obvious there had been some kind of mistake. This wasn't how imprinting went.

Embry ignored the twinge of pain that seared his chest at the thought of being parted from the boy. He wasn't gay. He couldn't do this. It wouldn't be fair to himself – and it wouldn't be fair to Sully Lin either.

_Embry, you do realize that you are supposed to be whatever your imprint needs you to be?_ Embry could almost hear the cogs turning in Sam's head as the Alpha eyeballed him. He nodded cautiously, not sure where Sam was going with this, but willing to listen to anything that might explain this in any other way than him eventually having to find a state that allowed gay marriage.

He nearly shuddered at the thought, ignoring any other possible responses that might have tried to rise to the surface of his mind.

_Sully Lin is fourteen years old. And you are a lover, a protector, a friend or a brother. Or all of those. Or some of those. Perhaps what the boy needs isn't a romantic relationship, but a familial one?_ Sam suggested and Embry froze at the thought, allowing cautious hope to replace misery as he circled the suggestion from all angles.

_You are what your imprint needs you to be,_ Sam repeated and then his wolf form turned around, running in between the trees. Sam's mind faded away with a last sympathetic thought, leaving Embry alone to come to a conclusion he could abide by.

_I can be a protector. I know I can,_ Embry thought, pacing as best he could in this form. _Sam is right; the boy is fourteen. He doesn't need a partner, he needs a protector. A friend._

Sully was kind of runty too, small and frail-looking, with large eyes. A boy like that wouldn't be able to defend himself from everything bad in the world. It was obvious, from the way he was dressed and from his polite manners, that he wasn't part of the 'in-crowd' at school.

Embry felt his muzzle scrunch at the thought of Sully's ragged-looking clothes and cautious body language. _A boy like that could easily be targeted by bullies._

Before he even registered his response to that thought consciously, a growl vibrated in his chest and rose out of his throat. Nobody was allowed to hurt Sully. Nobody _would_ hurt Sully for as long a Embry was there to protect him.

He'd just be a friend – a very good friend – and nobody would be looking at them weirdly or anything, because there would be nothing weird or unusual about their friendship. He'd be like a mentor to Sully, maybe, and nothing more. The pack would be able to tell that it wasn't – that he wasn't gay. That they wouldn't – gay – together, even when Sully grew old enough to be a potential interest.

Decision made, Embry nodded his massive head happily. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all? He'd dreaded being bound to some girl he'd never spoken to in his life because of some mythical mate-bond. Now he'd never have to worry about imprinting again, because he'd been bound to a boy, a little brother to care for. He could still get it on with girls, still have a perfectly normal life.

Embry wasn't sure why that thought didn't bring him as much relief as it should have, but didn't care to dwell on it. It was probably just the few lingering doubts Sam hadn't been able to dispel even with his reasonable suggestions.

So. Now he'd just have to get to know the boy better.

Embry hardly noticed when his tail started wagging, until it stopped when he realized that he probably hadn't made the best – or sanest – first impression. _Oh god, he must think I'm an utter lunatic! Staring at him stupidly and then disappearing out the door like a complete weirdo!_

If he hadn't been in wolf form, he'd have bashed his head into the nearest tree, but as it was, he just hung his head. There was no point destroying trees without reason, especially since he wouldn't feel even a hint of pain to ground him.

_I hope Sam came up with some kind of explanation,_ Embry thought anxiously, jaw clenching at the idea that Sully might be afraid or weirded out by him. That wasn't allowed to happen.

He forcibly tried to calm himself enough to phase back, but it took him almost five minutes to get to that point where he could feel the warmth running up and down his spine and feel himself melt out of his werewolf shape and into his human form.

Rising quickly to his feet, Embry stumbled, the transition between four and two legs confusing his senses before he could regain his balance enough to stand up straight. He took of running the moment he'd assured himself that he was able to move without falling flat on his face and not until he reached the edge of the woods did he realize what should have been obvious the moment he'd phased back.

He was completely naked.

The thought crossed his mind with the speed of a particularly slow snail and Embry glanced downwards to confirm the obvious, before accepting that he couldn't run back into the house in his birthday suit, no matter how anxious he was to see Sully again.

He wasn't a flasher, and he'd thank his heart to remember that before deciding to run off with his body.

Suddenly he was on all fours again, and the sudden lapse in control would have worried him if he hadn't realized he wasn't alone in his head this time around. He narrowed his eyes, trying to identify the other presence and when he did, nearly groaned out loud.

Leah the Bitch Queen.

_Hey, thank you for the welcome_, she said, her thoughts a snarl of sarcasm, and Embry winced. He hadn't meant to think that, not really. Leah wasn't a bitch – well, she _was_; being a female wolf and all – but she wasn't genuinely cruel or snobby or anything like that.

She was just bitter and angry at everything and everyone. All the time. Sharing mindspace with her wasn't fun even on her very best of days, when her mood was up – which happened as rarely as sunshine in this part of the world.

Embry winced again at the reverberating growl and spun around to face Seth's sister as she came careening through the vegetation, snapping branches and thundering through the the smaller newborn trees close to the ground.

_Never show your back to the enemy_, Embry thought. _Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and all that jazz._

Leah stopped at that, letting out a wolfy sound that was probably the equivalent of a human snort.

_Damn straight,_ she thought, snapping her jaws at him faux-threateningly. Oh, he knew she knew how to use those teeth, but she wasn't pissed off enough to try going for him – yet. You could never be sure what would make her take a chunk out of you, since Leah was constantly in a state of PMS moodiness -

She took a snap at him and Embry moved out of the way as quickly as his wolf speed could carry him. At least, that was one good thing about sharing minds with her. He knew when she was attacking as soon as the thought crossed her mind. That didn't mean he always managed to dodge completely, of course, but at least he usually got off with rapidly healing scratches and nothing more.

_One day..._ Leah murmured, an image of her standing victorious over his collapsed form entering their shared mind. Embry snorted. That would never happen, no matter how good she got at fighting. For one thing, Sam would never allow an in-pack fight to progress that far.

He expected the snap before even finishing the sentence, but remained where he was. He shouldn't have thought that. Sam was a sore topic for Leah, with good reason, and he deserved the drops of blood spilling down his fur.

He hadn't meant to cause her pain, the thought had just sprung up on its own. He hadn't wanted it to, especially not now -

Leah bristled at his sympathy, lips drawing back to bare bloodied fangs. _What's with the fucking pity-party?_

It was hard, trying to avoid thinking about something when you had another person this close to you. The more you tried to avoid the thought, the closer it came to the surface. Or rather, the closer the image of the boy's face came to the surface. Sully Lin.

Leah stilled. _You imprinted?_

Embry tried very hard not to wince, but he didn't quite manage to keep his body still, or his emotions bland. He hadn't meant to let that slip, but now it was too late to take back, anyway. He wasn't too surprised she'd recognized Sully's face as an imprint, though. There were too many feelings attached to the image for it to be anything else.

Leah's body shuddered and she let out a howl of rage. He was surprised to find that she hadn't tried attacking him yet, and hunkered down to the ground.

_You fucking imprinted. It's an epidemic, that's what it is. This shit was supposed to be rare, and now you've gone and gotten yourself some girl to make googly-eyes at -_

Embry shifted. _Sully is a boy, actually. So I won't 'make googly-eyes' at him,_ he interrupted her before she could get too far into her rant to listen to him anymore. He wasn't as embarrassed about his boy-print as he'd been with Sam, now that he knew there was nothing necessarily gay about it.

But trust Leah to prod at it. She abruptly stopped howling, spinning around to stare at him. _You imprinted on a boy? You have a – a gay-print?_

Embry winced at her incredulous tone and then winced again at her words. _I'm not gay. He's like – my little brother. I think._ He wished dearly he'd sounded more certain, because Leah threw her head back and barked a laugh.

_Oh, this is fan-fucking-tastic. So not only are the imprints showing up when least expected, they're also capable of switching your sexuality._ Leah shook with laughter, her words ringing through their combined minds. Embry growled at her, irritated.

_I'm not gay. You know that, after all the time we've spent in the same mindspace!_ Embry shouted, knowing he'd be flushing if he'd been in his human form. Leah just stared at him for a moment, and then snorted. Even if her eyes remained firmly on his face, Embry could feel her eye-roll.

_Whatever. The guy is almost cute enough to pass for a tomboy girl, anyway._ She brought up the picture, studying it, and Embry supposed he could agree with that. The boy was certainly not the manliest of men.

_He's a boy. Of course he isn't 'the manliest of men',_ she mocked and Embry growled. _Aren't you glad you didn't imprint on a he-man?_ she asked him, voice saccharine, and Embry snapped his jaws, even though he did agree. He couldn't be a brother or a mentor to a 'he-man'. That would have been too weird. More weird. Whatever.

_Shut up,_ he finally gritted out, not willing to concede her point. She was smug enough as it was, anyway.

_You do know I can hear you, right?_ Leah idly asked, sitting down on her haunches, her eyes riveted on him. The way she stared at him had Embry feeling like a bug under a microscope and he snarled, uncomfortable and self-conscious.

_So you're going to be nothing but a mentor,_ Leah began and Embry perked up suspiciously. That neutral tone was not a good sign. She was plotting something, he could feel it.

_Yes,_ he answered cautiously, annoyed when her eyes brightened with mocking laughter. He couldn't help but be self-conscious about the whole situation, knowing how it must look to her. Still, she was being annoying, and he wasn't about to back down.

_Would you like to make a bet?_ she suggested, circling him like a hyena around a cadaver. Embry had to consciously make sure he didn't move or twist his head to keep her in his view, because that would be giving ground, and there was no way he would do that.

_About what?_ he asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously, as he already had a very good idea of what she was looking for.

_About your relationship with Sully Lin,_ Leah sing-songed teasingly and Embry could feel himself tense. Yeah, he knew she'd say that. _It shouldn't be a problem, should it, Embry?_

He ground his teeth at her tone, at the way she watched him. _You don't really think it'll be a problem to remain nothing but a big brother and mentor to little Sully, do you?_ she asked, drawling out Sully's name with a sneer that raised Embry's hackles.

_No. _He snapped the word out between drawn lips, glaring at her and shifting. He wasn't going to let her make something of this, he just wasn't.

_We-ll, I don't think you'll be able to keep your paws off him. You willing to take that bet?_

Embry bristled at her superficially innocent tone and burrowed his claws into the dirt. Smugness was practically dripping from her voice. _Sully is fourteen! Even if I was gay – which I'm not – I wouldn't go for someone that young!_

Leah rolled her eyes, eying the way he was preparing to pounce, and sat back. _Don't get your tail in a twist; he's only a few years younger. _She smirked._ You too _unsure_ to take the bet, then?_

He twitched. Damn. _Fine. I'll take the damn bet, but when you lose, you owe me a favor,_ Embry ground out, knowing she'd never stop harassing him if he didn't take it. And it wasn't like it was going to cost him anything anyway. He was on the winning side of this.

_Same to you, puppy._ Leah leered, the expression looking decidedly threatening with her sharp rows of teeth.

_I'm heading back,_ Embry abruptly announced before Leah could say anything else, wanting to get away from the woman and her mile-wide manipulation streak. Embry wouldn't be surprised to find that she was going to try and set up some supposedly "tempting" situations to try to force the bet in her favor. He wouldn't let her get Sully mixed up in it though; he'd tell Sam if it looked like she was about to cross the line.

_Whatever, coward. _She showed him her back as she rushed in the other direction, mental voice a mutter. With a last, confused, glace at his pack-mate's retreating form, Embry felt his bones creak as he shifted back.

"Coward?" he murmured, staring in between the trees where Leah had disappeared. He could hear her moving farther away, paws thumping over the ground, and his brow creased. Finally he shrugged, deciding that whatever she'd meant by that comment was just a Leah-bitch-thing.

He'd need to get to his own house and retrieve some clothes before deciding the next course of action. Sully was Nenya's grandkid, so obviously he'd be around, and since Seth apparently knew him, they could probably take it from there. Maybe have Seth invite the kid over to Emily's. Embry smiled at the thought. Nobody could resist Emily's matronly charms – or her food – and she'd be a good offset to the other guys in the pack, who were all so rowdy.

Decision made, Embry started towards his house. Thank god it was right by the edge of the forest, so he wouldn't have to run through the rez in his birthday suit.

* * *

**A/N:** As always when I feel stuck, I reread your reviews, and then **mabidiso** sent me one of her polite PM's, and suddenly I had my mojo back. Thank you for that! (For readers of my other stories: I'm almost finished with the next chapter of **Changeling**, as well as about 2/3 into the next chapter of **Teacher**. Not setting any definite posting dates, though.) I have a backlog of PM's I haven't answered yet too- I apologize for that!

On this chapter: I don't think Embry is necessarily homophobic, but getting an involuntary Sudden Sexuality Shift would upset anyone. Plus, La Push is a small community and Forks is a small town, and although I don't know this to be true via personal experience, I've heard and read that small towns are more likely to be biased in these cases. Which may or may not play into the storyline later on.

What did you think?


	8. When trouble comes to find you

**The Different Faces of Su Li**

_Chapter 8: When trouble comes to find you..._

* * *

Last chapter: _He'd need to get to his own house and retrieve some clothes before deciding the next course of action. Sully was Nenya's grandkid, so obviously he'd be around, and since Seth apparently knew him, they could probably take it from there. Maybe have Seth invite the kid over to Emily's. Embry smiled at the thought. Nobody could resist Emily's matronly charms – or her food – and she'd be a good offset to the other guys in the pack, who were all so rowdy. _

* * *

Su woke up feeling as tired as when she'd gone to bed. She hadn't been able to make any sense of what had happened at Quil Sr's house yesterday, wasn't even sure she should try to make sense of things in the first place. There was a feeling to the whole ordeal, like she was looking at things from the outside, far separated from what was really going on. That it might even be... well, _dangerous_ for her to cross that line.

And why was she so concerned about people she'd only just met, anyway? For some reason, Su was sure it had to do with the look of horror Embry's face. And perhaps also the look of wonder that had preceded it. It had flashed in her mind several times during the evening, and there was something about that expression that made her want to figure it out.

"Urgh, what am I doing?" Su groaned to herself, stumbling into the bathroom and staring miserably into the mirror. She'd already had the beginning of dark circles under her eyes, but now they had deepened in color, darkening from reddish to bluish.

She scrubbed her face with soap, washed it off with water and looked a little better when she emerged from the thick towel to look into the mirror again. Or at least she didn't look like she was about to fall over at a strong gust of wind, she amended after a moment.

Su smiled a little as she stepped into her shoes, imagining the report she'd surely have to give the boy trio. They were a good distraction from her worries, with their over-active imagination and ridiculous ideas. Though they hadn't been completely wrong about the reservation guys. There was something brewing there, Su could feel it.

Best not to mention that part though, or they'd end up blowing the whole issue out of proportion.

–

Not too surprisingly, the boys had upon finding out that she'd been at Quil Sr's house reacted rather like she'd told them she'd gone to wrestle a lion. Umio hadn't been as vocal as the other two boys, but even he had seemed uncomfortable. To throw them off their collective worries, she'd told them about meeting Seth and how well he'd looked. How happy he'd seemed. It had worked surprisingly well as an evasion tactic, though that might have had to do with their easily distracted early-teen minds.

The day passed with ease, and Su made a deliberate attempt to steer her mind away from the pack of giant boys she'd met and whatever secrets they were hiding. It was none of her business.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Umio's quiet voice shook her from her mental wanderings, and Su glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was bent over his own large sheet of paper as he put the finishing touches on his art assignment. Su herself hadn't managed more than vague green forms and black blots- she'd been meaning to draw the treeline outside her bedroom window when her mind had taken her elsewhere.

Not feeling particularly inclined to speak more about 'Sam's gang', Su scrambled for a safer topic. "The nightly howls," she said, because as she had been thinking about those earlier today, it wasn't a complete lie.

Umio looked up. "Howls?" He cocked his head at her and Su nodded. "You mean the wolves?"

"So they are wolves?" she asked, though she'd been almost entirely certain that was the case. Su didn't know much about normal wolves, but the howls she'd heard had sounded similar enough to werewolf howls that she'd made the connection. Umio nodded, looking back down to his painting again. Su cocked a mental eyebrow at the lifelike depiction of waves rolling over a shore lined by cliffs. She hadn't expected Umio to be that good an artist.

After a few moments, he elaborated, "They showed up a few years ago, though they're rarely actually seen." He looked up at her after a moment, eyebrows lowered and drawn together. "You didn't know?"

Su shrugged. Perhaps Umio thought someone ought to have told her before now? It was sweet of him to be even a little upset on her behalf, but it wasn't like she'd been planning to wander about the woods in the middle of the night. Su looked back down at her own picture and with a sigh, gave it up as a lost cause. Somehow she'd ended up dribbling red paint across the canvas without noticing, and those specks of color weren't rectifiable without magic.

Apparently taking her silence as a bid to change subject, Umio spoke up again. "Eliza was worried about you." His voice was abrupt and when Su turned her head to blink at him in confusion, he'd bent down over his painting again, light brush strokes adding flecks of silver to the ocean.

"Eliza? Why?"

"She was there when Sam Uley asked you to visit." It was hard to tell in profile, but Su thought he looked a bit annoyed about that. Remembering how the boys had reacted when she'd told them where she'd been, Su suspected it was because Eliza hadn't informed them about it. She raised a mental eyebrow at that, because she hadn't gotten the impression that any of the boys were close enough to Eliza that they could reasonably expect to be informed.

"Less talking, more working!"

The snap of the teacher's voice had both her and Umio bending back down over their respective paintings. Neither of them dared to continue with the conversation even in whispers, because Mrs. Maxwell was a frightening woman. In Su's opinion, Mrs. Maxwell glares were almost on par with McGonagall's at the transfiguration teacher's best.

"I never hear her sneak up," Umio muttered as the lesson finally drew to a close, the students hastening to put brushes and paints in the correct cupboards before dashing out the door. Mrs. Maxwell was frowning in obvious disapproval at the din, but didn't seem inclined to do more than that now that the class was dismissed.

They trailed after the herd of students pouring down the corridors and out of the school and crossed the school yard in amicable silence, sharing a small bag of assorted nuts between them.

Su yawned discreetly, blinking at the pale sunlight filtering in through the heavy clouds. Umio glanced at her and stopped, crumpling the now empty bag in his hand.

"Tired?"

Su shrugged. "The howling was particularly obnoxious yesterday." She sighed and wiped a hand over her eyes. "Maybe I should invest in some earplugs." The last part was said in a very low mutter, but Umio obviously heard her anyway. The corner of his mouth curled upwards.

"You'll get used to it." Su supposed that was true enough. If she could get used to her Hogwarts dorm mates' noisy, and sometimes even explosive, experiments, surely she could get used to the howling of wolves.

Su stared sightlessly at the treeline that marked one end of the school yard and almost missed the large shape leaning against the low wall where the bicycles were lined up. Umio must have noticed the guy at the same moment she did, because at the same moment recognition flitted through Su's mind, he stopped like his feet had suddenly been nailed to the ground.

"Is that-?" He made a small aborted hand-movement.

"It's one of the guys I met at Quil Sr house, though I'm not sure which one..." She trailed off, because unless one of his friends had suddenly appeared behind her and Umio, he was staring right at her.

"Were you supposed to meet up today?" Umio sounded a bit apprehensive as the guy began making his way towards them, the kids around him parting like water around a rock. Or a shark. As he came closer, Su was pretty sure it was the last guy she'd met, the one who'd pulled a Houdini, though it was still hard to tell. Their faces kind of blended together in her mind, looking as similar as they did.

"No, but apparently he has some business with me." What was his name again? Sam was the non-Godfather one, Seth was the puppy dog, Quil was the grandson, the one who'd inhaled a sandwich was Pete – no, Paul – and that would make this one Amber. No, Ember. Something like that. At the time, she'd be less focused on his name and more on the weirdness of the situation as a whole, but it was something like that.

"Err, hello," Umio greeted the guy when he was close enough and Su nodded, cautious. Of course, there was nothing that indicated that this guy wished them any harm, but what with all the undercurrents and everybody's strange behavior yesterday, she wasn't going to err on the trusting side.

Amber-Ember's eyes flickered over to Umio's – and only then did Su realize that they'd been glued to her up to that point. Damn it – she'd decided she wasn't going to get up in their business, and now it seemed like the business was apparently coming to her.

"Hi. I'm Embry," the giant introduced himself, presenting Umio with a gigantic hand attached to a very muscular arm. Su couldn't fault her friend for looking a bit timid when he took it and introduced himself, because Umio's own arm looked somewhat like a twig in comparison.

Then he turned to her, and Su held back a discomfited squirm at the way he was studying her. Like he was an art enthusiast committed to learning every nuance of the Mona Lisa. "Lin." He said her name with a tone as odd as his stare and Su tried not to fidget. Her wand was in its arm holster, but even if it was close by, she had no reasons what so ever to draw it. This guy, Embry, wasn't threatening her in any way. Furthermore, he was a muggle.

"I wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday." His husky voice dipped a bit in awkwardness, and Su looked up in surprise from where she'd been staring vaguely at his chin. When she now met his eyes, there was less of that intensity and more of a self-deprecating kind of embarrassment that immediately put Su more at ease. It made him seem younger than however old he was. (She'd have guessed somewhere in his early- to mid-twenties, but since Oliver had said that the members of Sam Uley's gang all looked older than they actually were, that guess could be way off.)

"Oh, that's -" Su hesitated, "- alright." She wasn't sure what to say, hadn't really expected to see any of the possibly-martial-artists giants against after she'd so politely been thrown out by Quil Sr yesterday. But she didn't really want to make a big deal out of it, and the fact that he even showed up to apologize... actually, on second thought, that was a bit strange too, now that she considered it. What kind of teenage or young adult guy showed up _in person_ to apologize to a person he'd never met before for something that had, at most, been rude and a bit weird? Or was this just some kind of normal small town courtesy thing she wasn't used to?

"It really wasn't. Old Quil threw you out just 'cause of how I-" he ran a hand through his short hair and then waved it vaguely in the air between them. "Well, whatever. Just wanted to stop by and tell you that I'm not usually that much of a freak and that Old Quil would probably beat me over the head with a skillet if he thought I'd sca- freaked Nenya's grandson out to the point where you won't come and visit again." He seemed even more awkward, eyes darting from her to an uncomfortable-looking Umio, to the sky and then back to her again. Even though she was left with the odd feeling that he was trying to hold back from staring at her – something about the way his gaze hitched before moving away from her face – there was something very sincere about his apology.

Su smiled, just a little. "I wouldn't want you to risk Quil Sr's wrath, or his apparent proficiency with a skillet."

His shoulders loosened noticeably, like his whole body was drooping in relief, and he grinned at her. "And I thank you for that." He shifted a bit, looked briefly at Umio, and Su felt comfortable enough to turn to her friend and ask if he'd mind them parting here. There was a set to Umio's expression that said he wasn't happy about it, but he nodded. Apparently Su wasn't the only one who felt less weird about Embry's sudden appearance after that heartfelt apology, even if the younger teen didn't know exactly what had transpired between him and Su yesterday.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then." He eyed Embry blandly, but turned to her with a questioning tilt to his head. 'Is this okay?' he seemed to be asking.

Su smiled at him, kind of touched at his concern. They hadn't known each other for very long at all, and already he was acting like a friend rather than a mere acquaintance. "Definitely," she said, answering both the spoken and the unspoken in one go. He nodded and turned to leave.

When Umio was out of hearing range, Embry grinned at her again. "I was wondering if you'd consider going with me to meet Emily Young? She teaches traditional weaving here at the school and apparently you're on her student list for the beginner's course?"

Su raised her eyebrows at the abrupt topic-switch. She recognized the name, but the fact that her would-be teacher had apparently shared her student list with friends didn't sit too well with her – though that was more paranoia than any real belief that Embry would somehow use the knowledge to hurt her.

Embry stared at her for a moment, brow furrowed, before his expression cleared with realization. "It wasn't that- Emily doesn't gossip. It's not like that. The student lists were posted, and since you're Nenya's grandchild, Old Quil was curious and looked it up-" He was babbling. And if Su was honest with herself, it was both rather amusing and a bit adorable. She hadn't even really implied anything, and he was already falling all over himself trying to reassure her.

"I believe you," she said when Embry's words trickled into silence, and again there was that sense of abject relief from him, like he'd ducked a blow. "You're a pretty close-knit community," she commented. Her coming here had caused quite a stir even though she hadn't done anything particularly interesting since her arrival.

"Yeah, I guess. The rez is the rez," he said with a shrug. "And Emily's father was a Makah tribe Elder and apparently..."

"- he knew my grandmother?" Su finished, a bit put-upon. Was there anyone here who didn't know her grandmother?

"Yeah."

At least this Emily wanting to meet her made more sense now. Su hadn't really put much thought into her electives, but art and weaving had seemed like classes that wouldn't require her to do too much work at home.

"Do you mean to go now?" she asked, feeling rather like she was betraying her own promise not to stick her nose where it didn't belong.

"You'll come with?" He grinned at her again, white teeth contrasting with his dark amber skin. Was that a tan or his natural skin tone? The other giants had had similar coloring, which lent credence to the guess that it was natural – either that or they all spent most of their time outside.

Shaking off the random tangential thought, she nodded. "Yes." It couldn't hurt to see what kind of woman she'd be having for a teacher – after the Carrows' reign at Hogwarts, something in her twitched apprehensively at the thought of going to class without knowing what kind of person would teach it. Plus, though she would deny it even in her own mind, she was just the _tiniest_ bit curious about whether she might unearth the reason for yesterday's undercurrents.

* * *

**A/N: **Busy. As. Hell *wild stare* Apologies for the delay and all that, and thank you for your lovely reviews. I'm not dead and I don't have author's block. Let's just say that the fact that school will be over in three months relieves me very much. What else... oh, I've uploaded a Supernatural ficlet (crossposted from my LJ), if anyone's interested.

Crossing my fingers for reviews to brighten up my headache-inducing day ;)


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